GREAT LEADERS SERIES 

Edited by E. Hershey Sneath, Ph.D., LL.D. 

YALE UNIVERSITY 



JESUS OF NAZARETH 
A BIOGRAPHY 



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JESUS OF NAZARETH 

A BIOGRAPHY 



BY 

GEORGE A. BARTON, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Professor of Semitic Languages in the University of Pennsylvania, 
and Professor of New Testament Literature and Language in 
the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
Philadelphia; sometime Professor of Biblical Litera- 
ture and Semitic Languages in Bryn Mawr College. 



'He spake of lilies, vines, and corn, 
The sparrow and the raven, 
And words so natural yet so wise 
Were on men's hearts engraven. 

And yeast and bread and flax and cloth 
And eggs and fish and candles — 
See how the most familiar world 
He most divinely handles." 



mew Korfe 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1922 

All rights reserved 






Copyright, 1922, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and printed. Published November, 1922 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



DEC -1*22 

©C1A690446 



>i* 



TO 

RHODA CAROLINE BARTON 
f 

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GENERATION 

FOR WHICH THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN 

IT IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

The "Great Leaders Series" aims to meet the needs of 
moral and religious secondary education. Adolescence 
is preeminently the period of Idealism. The naive 
obedience to authority characteristic of childhood is to a 
large extent supplanted at this time by self-initiative; — 
by self-determination in accordance with ideals adopted 
or framed by the individual himself. Furthermore, the 
ideals of this period are concrete rather than abstract. 
They are embodied in individual lives, and, generally, in 
lives of action. Hence biographies of great leaders ap- 
peal strongly to the adolescent. They furnish examples 
and stimulus for conduct along the higher lines. The 
"Great Leaders Series" will include a large number of 
volumes devoted to the study of some of the greatest 
moral and spiritual leaders of the race. Although de- 
signed primarily for use in the class-room, they will serve 
admirably the purposes of a general course of reading 
in biography for youth. 

E. HZRSHEY SNEATH. 



PREFACE 

The life of Jesus Christ is the most important event 
in the religious history of mankind. The significance of 
it is eternal. Nowhere else has God so revealed his na- 
ture. How shall one approach the task of writing an 
account of it? 

Most of our knowledge of this wonderful life is de- 
rived from the four Gospels, but in many points the 
Gospels do not agree. They often differ as to the order 
of events and the occasions which called forth some of 
the sublimest teaching of the Master. They differ also 
as to the length of time covered by his ministry. Under 
these circumstances those who undertake this delicate and 
sacred task to-day fall into five groups according to their 
methods of treating the sources. 

i. There are those who regard all the Gospels as 
equally valuable sources of information, and seek as 
best they can to harmonize their statements. These 
writers base their chronology of Christ's ministry on the 
Gospel of John, the latest of the Gospels, which was 
written about seventy years after the Crucifixion. This 
method produces the type of devotional biography of 
Jesus which has within the last century become conven- 
tional. 

2. Another group of writers on the life of Jesus may 
be called the historical school. They seek to use the 
knowledge of the composition and dates of the Gospels 
which has been gained by modern study in accordance 
with the methods of modern historical research. Where 
the Gospels differ, greater weight is given to the earlier 
document, unless there appears to be some good reason 



x Preface 

for not doing it. As the Gospels imply that Christ had a 
real human development, and "grew in wisdom" as well 
as "in stature," writers of this school reverently seek to 
utilize such knowledge as can be obtained from modern 
psychology in the effort to understand something of his 
inner life and its bearing upon his earthly career. 

3. Still another group of writers have been called the 
"skeptical school." These regard large portions of the 
earliest Gospel as unhistorical. They believe that Jesus 
never claimed to be the Messiah; he was only a great 
prophet. They admire him and praise his teaching and 
insight, but they think the Church through the centuries 
has been mistaken in regarding him as the Son of God. 

4. A fourth group of writers go to the other extreme. 
They believe that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, and 
that he meant by the term just what the Jews of his time 
meant by it. Such writers bury Jesus completely under 
the mistaken world-theories of the first century Jews. 
They make him less than the prophets of the Old Testa- 
ment, for each one of them, while in some respects a child 
of his age, was far above his age in the sweep of his 
ethical and spiritual insight. Too many vital parts of the 
Gospels have to be explained away to make out that 
Jesus' conception of his Messiahship was the same as the 
Jewish. 

5. There is, lastly, a group of writers who endeavor 
to prove that Jesus never lived — that the story of his 
life is made up by mingling myths of heathen gods, Baby- 
lonian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek, etc. No real scholar 
regards the work of these men seriously. They lack the 
most elementary knowledge of historical research. Some 
of them are eminent scholars in other subjects, such as 
Assyriology and mathematics, but their writings about 
the life of Jesus have no more claim to be regarded as 



Preface xi 

historical than Alice in Wonderland or the Adventures 
of Baron Munchausen. This book has been written in 
accordance with the methods of the second group men- 
tioned above. Historical methods of study afford the 
present generation a clearer knowledge of the Son of 
Man as he was and as he lived than any other generation 
of Christians has had since that group of Twelve who 
walked and talked with him. The writer has thought it 
his duty in writing a book for students to try, however 
imperfectly, to give them the benefit of this more recent 
knowledge which makes the portrait of this wonderful 
life so real. Two reasons have impelled him to this most 
difficult undertaking. One is that these young people 
must live their lives in a period when scientific views of 
the world will be even more generally accepted than they 
are now, and when it will be increasingly difficult for 
educated people to keep their Christian faith vital, unless 
they feel assured that the Father of Jesus Christ is the 
God of astronomy and geology, and the God of religious 
faith is the God of the laboratory. The other reason is 
that he has learned, in more than thirty years' experience 
in teaching young people the Bible by historical methods, 
that such study creates an interest in the subject that no 
other method can produce, that it brushes aside what 
seem to be unrealities, and quickens faith. 

It is not to be supposed that the science of our time is 
infallible, or its knowledge complete. "We know in part 
and we prophesy in part." It is nevertheless our duty to 

'Taint the thing as we see it 
For the God of things as they are," 

always keeping our picture so in accord with reality that 
the inspiring and transforming power of the great Sub- 
ject of our portrait may exert its full influence upon us. 



xii Preface 

Our scientific knowledge has been built up by observing 
facts and forming theories in accordance with them. This 
is called inductive reasoning. Most of our religious ideas 
were reached by forming theories and supposing that facts 
correspond to them. This is called deductive reasoning. 
Science, once grounded on deductive inferences, has 
gained immensely by changing to the inductive method. 
Many of the intellectual difficulties of young people arise 
from this difference of method. The present writer re- 
gards it as the duty of religious teachers to produce a 
religious literature in which the grounds of faith are se- 
cured by the inductive method. In this book he has ac- 
cordingly made an effort to follow the inductive rather 
than the dogmatic way, confident that for the thoughtful 
young people of the present and the future the goal of 
vital faith will be more easily and surely reached by this 
path. 

Students of the life of Christ are well aware that, 
where the Gospels differ as to the order of events, it is 
impossible to reach certainty, and consequently opinions 
of scholars differ widely. In his conception of the order 
of events in some important parts of the ministry of 
Jesus the writer has found himself in agreement with 
some of the conclusions of the late Professor Charles A. 
Briggs set forth in his little book, New Light on the Life 
of Christ, a book which deserves wider recognition than 
it has yet received. One cannot, within the space al- 
lowed, give his reasons for many of the positions adopted, 
he can only beg the reader to believe that, if there were 
opportunity, reasons for them could be given that would 
be at least respectable in the court of scholarship. It is 
the writer's hope that he may at some time be able to 
treat some of these topics more fully elsewhere. 

The writing of this book has been at once the most 



Preface xiii 

sacred, and the most difficult task that its author ever 
undertook. It is a pleasure gratefully to acknowledge the 
aid which he has received in every part of it from the 
helpful criticisms and suggestions of his wife. 

It is not without a keen realization of its imperfections 
that this portrait is laid at the feet of the Master. May 
its faults be forgiven and over-ruled, and may He, Who 
through the centuries has employed many humble and 
imperfect instruments, make it of some use in the build- 
ing up of the kingdom of God. 

George A. Barton". 



CONTENTS 



BOOK I. THINGS TO BE KNOWN BEFOREHAND 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Land Where Jesus Lived 3 

II. The Four Gospels 14 

III. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke . . 19 

IV. The Gospel of John 24 

V. What People Thought of the World When Jesus 

Lived 28 

VI. The Temple and the Synagogue 36 

VII. The Education of Children 41 

VIII. Jewish Sects and Ideals in the Time of Christ 47 

IX. The Dates in the Life of Jesus 54 

BOOK II. THE LIFE OF JESUS BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 

X. The Birth of Jesus 67 

XL The Early Childhood of Jesus 73 

XII. Jesus at Play and at School 79 

XIII. The Boy's Visit to the Temple 88 

XIV. The Silent Years at Nazareth 98 

XV. The Baptism of Jesus 109 

XVI. The Temptation of Jesus 117 

BOOK III. THE MINISTRY OF JESUS IN GALILEE 



XVII. The Beginning of Jesus' Ministry . 

XVIII. A Day in Capernaum 

XIX. A Tour Through Galilee .... 
XX. By the Sea of Galilee Again . 
XXL The First Passover of Jesus' Ministry 
XXII. Jesus Again at Capernaum 

XXIII. Jesus Selects the Twelve Apostles 

XXIV. Jesus' First Lesson to a Class of Twelve 
XXV. Another Lesson to a Class of Twelve . 

xv 



129 

135 

142 

147 
153 
159 
163 
169 
175 



XVI 



Contents 



CHAPTER 

XXVI. Jesus and a Roman Centurion . 
XXVII. The Widow of Nain and Her Son 
XXVIII. The Messengers of John the Baptist . 
XXIX. Jesus at the Feast of Pentecost 
XXX. Jesus, a Pharisee, and a Sinful Woman 
XXXI. Jesus Misunderstood by His Brothers . 
XXXII. Jesus' Great Contribution to Literature 

XXXIII. Two Remarkable Incidents 

XXXIV. Jairus and His Daughter .... 
XXXV. The Twelve Sent Forth to Preach 



181 
184 
187 
191 
194 
199 
204 
209 
214 
219 



BOOK IV. THE PERiEAN MINISTRY OF JESUS 

XXXVI. Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles . 

XXXVII. Jesus Sends out Seventy Preachers . 

XXXVIII. Jesus Begins His First Ministry in Per^a 
XXXIX. Jesus' First Ministry in Per^a 

XL. The Feast of Dedication .... 

XLI. Jesus' Second Ministry in Per^a . 

XLII. The Seventy Return and Report to Jesus 



227 

233 
238 
243 
248 
253 
258 



BOOK V. JESUS AVOIDING HIS ENEMIES 

XLIII. The Illness of Lazarus at Bethany . . . 265 

XLIV. Jesus Avoids His Enemies 270 

XLV. The Return of the Twelve 276 

XLVI. Jesus Once More in Capernaum .... 282 
XLVII. Jesus Tells His Disciples That He Is the 

Messiah 287 

XLVIII. The Transfiguration 291 

XLIX. Jesus' Last Visit at Capernaum .... 296 

L. Jesus' Last Journey to Jerusalem .... 303 



BOOK VI. THE PASSION AND RESURRECTION 

LI. The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem 

LII. The Events of the Following Monday 

LIII. The Events of Tuesday 

LIV. In the Temple on Wednesday . 

LV. An Instructive Walk and a Supper . 

LVI. Judas Iscariot and the Chief Priests 

LVII. The Last Passover Supper . 



315 
320 
327 
33i 
337 
344 
350 



Contents xvii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

LVIII. In Gethsemane 357 

LIX. The Examination Before the Jewish Authorities 365 

LX. The Trial Before Pilate 373 

LXI. The Crucifixion 381 

LXII. The Resurrection 390 

LXIII. The Place of Jesus in History 393 



BOOK I 
THINGS TO BE KNOWN BEFOREHAND 

Chapters I-IX 



CHAPTER I 

THE LAND WHERE JESUS LIVED 

WHEN we read the life of a person it is a great 
help toward making the story seem real to 
have a vivid conception of the land in which 
the person lived. If we can imagine how its hills and 
valleys looked, what kind of houses people lived in, how 
the hills and plains were decked with verdure or flowers, 
and whether the air was clear or murky with mist, it is 
much easier to make mental pictures of the man or 
woman whose life we are studying. Jesus of Nazareth 
is the most important person who ever lived in the world. 
Beside him the greatest kings, prophets, statesmen, poets, 
and scholars seem unimportant. His life above all other 
lives ought to become real to us. We must, therefore, 
before we begin to study it, read a little about his home 
and the land in which it was situated. 

Had Jesus lived in any other land, he would have 
hallowed it and made it dear to mankind. Palestine, the 
land where he did live, is of deep interest to us because 
it was his home. It happens also to be a land deeply 
interesting in itself. Bounded on the east by the Arabian 
Desert, this little country, which is about as large as the 
combined states of Connecticut and Rhode Island, formed 
a highway between Babylonia and Egypt, the two oldest 
civilized countries in the world. For many centuries be- 
fore Christ was born caravans of camels had toiled 
slowly across Palestine carrying back and forth the prod- 
ucts of the fertile valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile. 

3 



4 Jesus of Nazareth 

Many centuries earlier still, the hand of God had 
wrought to make Palestine the most wonderful country 
of its size in the world. Late in geologic time there 
was tremendous volcanic action in Syria, Palestine, and 
far to the south of them. A great crack was made in 
the earth's crust extending from the neighborhood of 
Mount Hermon far down into the Indian Ocean to the 
south of Arabia, and the rock-strata on the west of this 
crack slipped down a mile or more toward the center of 
the earth. While the crack gradually filled up, it left a 
deep basin, which now forms the Red Sea, the Gulf of 
Akaba, the Araba and the Jordan valley. The Jordan 
valley is really a great trench in the earth's surface caused 
by this crack. At the Huleh in Galilee it is just about 
on a level with the ocean; at the Sea of Galilee it is 68 1 
feet below the level of the ocean; at the Dead Sea it is 
almost 1,300 feet below the level of the ocean. Pales- 
tine is a sub-tropical country; it lies in the same latitude 
as the southern half of the state of Georgia. Its climate 
is everywhere mild. Into the long trench of the Jordan 
valley the sun pours with great power, making a really 
hot climate. In winter the temperature is about 70 de- 
grees; in summer, often from no to 120 degrees Fahren- 
heit. In this heat tropical plants flourish ; oleanders bloom 
and mustard plants grow ten to fifteen feet high. In the 
language of Jesus "it becometh a tree, so that the birds of 
heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof." 

On either side of this valley mountains rise. These 
mountains are higher at the south of the country than 
at the north. The range on the east has at the south a 
comparatively level summit, where the country of Moab 
lies; in the center rise the hills of Gilead; to the east of 
the Sea of Galilee it descends to the rolling country of 
the Hauran. In the time of Christ, Gilead and Moab 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 5 

constituted the region called Percea. The range of moun- 
tains on the west of the Jordan is at Hebron about 3,000 
feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and slopes 
gradually downward until, at the great plain of Esdrselon, 
it vanishes altogether. Just north of this plain, where 
the village of Nazareth stands, it begins gradually to rise 
again and in northern Galilee attains a height of about 
3,000 feet. The volcanic upheavals of late geologic time 
twisted the surface of this region and much of that east 
of the Jordan into many tortuous shapes. It is accord- 
ingly diversified with hills and with valleys, which have 
been deepened by the rains of many centuries. The re- 
sult is a greater variety of scenery than is to be found in 
any other country of the same size. 

To the west of this range there lies the sea-coast plain 
which constituted ancient Philistia. The range of hills 
between the Jordan valley and Philistia was the scene of 
the most of Biblical history. One cannot travel far on 
either side of the Jordan, however, without reaching hill- 
tops from which great vistas of this country can be seen. 
Such wonderfully beautiful views expand the thoughts of 
those who look upon them. 

At the northern end of the Jordan valley, Mount 
Hermon, the highest peak of the region, rises to a height 
of 9,300 feet. The rains of the Palestinian winter fall as 
snow on Mount Hermon, where they lie unmelted till the 
following July. From many a hilltop in Palestine the 
hoary head of Hermon is visible. From many points in 
the Jordan valley it can be seen. One travels there in a 
tropical atmosphere, surrounded by pink oleanders and 
other tropical flowers, often in full view of this snow- 
capped mountain. To have traveled that valley with Jesus 
and amid such scenes to have listened to his words, was 
the privilege of the fishermen of Galilee ! 



6 Jesus of Nazareth 

Practically all the rain in Palestine falls between No- 
vember and April. At times there may be a shower in 
October or in May, but these are rare. The season of 
verdure and of agricultural activity is accordingly in what 
we call winter. During the long dry summer, when never 
a drop of rain falls, nor a cloud flecks the sky, the hills 
become mere dusty surfaces which look like ash-heaps. 
Here and there a vineyard or an olive orchard relieves 
the barrenness, but otherwise it seems as though those 
dead hills could never sustain a living thing. When the 
rain comes, however, grass springs up. The peasants sow 
their wheat, oats, barley, and sesame, and these, too, soon 
become green. At the end of January wild flowers begin 
to bloom, and by April the whole land is a continuous 
flower garden of unimagined beauty. There are anem- 
ones, white, and all shades of purple, red, and pink. 
Some of them are as large as saucers. Bachelors' buttons 
of every hue grow in profusion, as do red, pink, and 
blue poppies, and countless flowers of which I do not 
know the names. Every landscape is a mass of color. I 
never saw anywhere else such a profusion of flowers. 
Much learning has been expended in trying to determine 
what flower Jesus had in mind when he said, "Consider 
the lilies. . . . Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
like one of these." In the Aramaic which Jesus spoke 
the word which is often translated "lily" includes all 
beautiful flowers. Probably Jesus had before him one of 
these glorious Palestinian hillsides that were a perfect 
riot of color. Probably with a gesture of his hand toward 
them he said "Consider the flowers." God clothes them 
in exquisite beauty, though they are not anxious about 
clothing. Do not let anxiety about clothes eat the heart 
out of your life ! ( Matt. 6 : 28 ft. ) 

Palestine was ? little country, but, for all its beauty, 



Things To Be Known Beforehand y 

it was not a fertile country. The sea-coast plain, the 
plain of Esdrselon, and the plains of Moab were fertile, 
but the seacoast was, during much of Biblical history, 
in the hands of foreigners. The Jordan valley was fer- 
tile where irrigated, but these fertile portions were but 
a fraction of the land. Most of the Hebrew people lived 
on the hills, where the rocks were nowhere far from the 
surface and often filled much of the fields. They were 
compelled to wrest a livelihood from the meager soil be- 
tween the rocks. It is, however, in difficult surroundings 
like these that God has brought to perfection the great- 
est men. 

In the time of Christ, Palestine was divided into four 
parts, each of which bore a different name. The most 
southerly of these on the west of the Jordan was Judaea. 
It corresponded roughly with the limits of the old king- 
dom of Judah though, unlike that kingdom, it extended 
across Philistia to the Mediterranean. Jerusalem was its 
capital. When, in 444 B.C., Nehemiah returned from 
the East with authority to reestablish the Jewish state as 
a colony of Persia, that state consisted only of Jerusalem 
and a little section of country around it. The southern 
frontier was only about twenty miles south of Jerusalem. 
Hebron was in Idumaea at that time. Judah continued 
small until about 140 B.C., when Simon the Maecabee, 
carried its frontier to the sea and gained Joppa as a sea- 
port. Later John Hyrcanus, Simon's son, conquered 
Idumaea, compelling the Idumaeans to become Jews, thus 
restoring to Judaea its old boundaries. Jerusalem con- 
tained the Temple. There Jehovah dwelt. To the Jew 
it was the most sacred spot on earth. At Jerusalem were 
the priests who performed the sacred ceremonies, the 
scribes who copied the law, and the great rabbis who ex- 
plained the law and the oral rules which helped men to 



8 Jesus of Nazareth 

observe it. The people of Judah thought they were nearer 
to God than other people. They looked down on every- 
body else. 

In the center of Palestine lay Samaria, the principal 
cities of which were Samaria and Shechem. Orthodox 
Jews regarded Samaria with aversion, because the 
Samaritans were, from their point of view, heretics. 
When in J 22 B.C. the Assyrian king, Sargon, destroyed 
Samaria, he deported a considerable number of its in- 
habitants. He replaced them with people from five dif- 
ferent cities, three of which were in Babylonia. These 
newcomers were soon attacked by bears and other wild 
beasts of the region. They thought it was because they 
did not worship the God of the land and asked the na- 
tives, therefore, that a priest be sent them to teach them 
the worship of the God of the land. This was done. 
They intermarried afterward with the Israelites who had 
not been carried into captivity, and their descendants 
came to regard themselves as good Jews. The Jews of 
Judaea would have nothing to do with them, however, 
because they were in part of foreign descent, and in the 
time of Nehemiah the rupture between Jew and Samari- 
tan became complete. The Samaritans took the Penta- 
teuch as their Bible (that was all the Scripture that the 
Jewish Bible then contained) . Their numbers multiplied, 
so that at the end of the first century A.D., when the 
Jewish historian Josephus wrote his history, they occupied 
villages from the great plain of Esdraelon on the north to 
about seven miles south of Mount Gerizim. We do not 
know what the southern boundary of Samaria was in 
the time of Christ; it may have been farther south than 
this. The Philistine plain bounded Samaria on the west 
and the Jordan valley on the east. 

Samaria was a richer country than Judaea. There are 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 9 

broad and fertile valleys between its hills. The struggle 
for food was not there so severe. So great was the 
aversion of Jews to Samaritans that a Jew would not go 
through Samaritan territory if he could help it. In trav- 
eling back and forth from Judaea to Galilee Jews usually 
went around by the Jordan valley to avoid Samaria. 

North of Samaria lay Galilee. Its southern part con- 
sisted of the plain of Esdraelon, its rolling fields well 
watered and dotted with villages. On the north of the 
plain low hills rise, between which are wide valleys. As 
one goes farther north the hills merge into the moun- 
tains of Galilee, which, like the mountains of Judaea, form 
a continuous range about 3,000 feet high. The northern 
boundary of Galilee was the Lebanon Mountains. The 
name Galilee means, "circle," "district," or "region." 
In Isaiah 9:1 it is called "Galilee of the nations." It 
seems that the Israelites never succeeded in fully displac- 
ing the Canaanitish inhabitants from it. In 732 B.C., 
Tiglathpileser IV, king of Assyria, carried away the more 
prominent citizens of Galilee and settled in their place 
captives brought from elsewhere. No such movement 
toward the Hebrew religion occurred here as occurred in 
Samaria. It appears that Galilee was lost to the Hebrew 
faith until after its re-conquest by the kings of Judaea, 
John Hyrcanus I and Alexander Jannaeus between 109 
and 79 B.C. After that a good many Jews settled in 
Galilee, but they lived far from Jerusalem and were 
looked down upon by the people of that city. The Jews 
of the capital thought them rude country folk. 

Just to the north of the plain of Esdraelon, nestling in 
one of the little valleys lay the village of Nazareth, where 
Jesus passed his boyhood and early manhood. Surround- 
ing hills shut in this hamlet made sacred by the Master, 
but from a hill on the north side of the village an ex- 



V, 



io Jesus of Nazareth 

tended view of the historic plain of Esdrselon may be 
had, and a glimpse of the distant Mediterranean. The 
Judseans despised Nazareth. "Can any good thing come 
out of Nazareth?" was a proverb. In consequence we 
have been accustomed to think of Jesus as brought up in 
a kind of backwoods town. Only three miles from Naz- 
areth, however, to the northwest was the city of Sep- 
phoris, which from 4 B.C. to 39 A.D. was the residence 
of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea. A 
boy who lives within three miles of the capital of his 
country cannot be said to be in the backwoods. He is 
fairly near to such civilization as his country possesses. 

Two and a half hours' walk to the east of Nazareth 
rises Mount Tabor. It is 2,800 feet high, has a rounded 
top, and lifts its head like a huge haystack above the sur- 
rounding lands. From its top an extensive and beautiful 
view is visible — the distant Mediterranean, Mount Car- 
mel, the great plain of Esdraelon dotted with its towns, 
the deep rift of the Jordan valley with the river winding 
through it as a tiny thread of silver, to the north the 
panorama of the hills of Galilee on which lay Cana and 
many other villages, while far to the northeast hoary 
Hermon raises its lofty head. At the foot of Tabor on 
the east lie the historic villages of Endor and Nain, one 
famed for Saul's visit to the witch, 1 the other for Jesus' 
restoration of a son to a sorrowing mother. 2 In the time 
of Christ a small town occupied the summit of Tabor. 
We do not know whether Jesus ever climbed to the top 
and saw the view or not. One would like to believe that 
he did ! 

On the east of Galilee the Jordan valley broadens out 
to contain the Sea of Galilee. This sea lies in a basin 

il Sam. 28:8-14. 
2 Luke 7:11-17. 



Things To Be Known Beforehand n 

created by volcanic action. On the east, west, and north 
of the sea are precipitous cliffs of granite or other igneous 
rock. From the northwest corner of the lake a plain or 
valley about three miles in width gradually rises into the 
hill country. This plain was called Chinnereth in Old 
Testament times, a name corrupted later to Gennesaret. 
From this plain the sea is sometimes called the sea of 
Gennesaret. The sea itself is about thirteen miles long. 
Its greatest width, about eight miles, is at the northern 
end. At the south end, which lies almost directly east 
from Nazareth, it tapers almost to a point. Into this 
lake, near its northeast corner, the Jordan River flows; 
it loses itself in the lake, but emerges from its southern 
apex, to rush along the downward way, which gave it its 
name, Jordan, i.e., "Descender." 

In the time of Christ this lake which lies 68 1 feet be- 
low the level of the Mediterranean and possesses a tropi- 
cal climate, was a busy place. Along its shores nine 
cities lay, each of which is said to have had 15,000 in- 
habitants ; some probably had more. One of the caravan 
routes from Egypt to Damascus lay along its western 
shore and around its northern end, crossing the Jordan 
on a bridge, ruins of which are still visible. Catching fish 
in the lake to feed this large population was a principal 
industry. 

As we read the Gospels we gain the impression that the 
region on the east side of the Sea of Galilee was called 
the Decapolis. Decapolis is a Greek word, meaning "ten 
city" (region). It applied to a federation of ten cities, 
the population of which was chiefly Hellenic. The fed- 
eration appears to have been formed by permission of the 
Roman General Pompey, when he took possession of 
Syria for Rome in 65-63 B.C. The most northerly of 
the cities was Damascus ; the most southerly, Philadelphia 



12 Jesus of Nazareth 

(Rabba Ammon). The Decapolis included only a small 
section of territory about each of these cities, not the 
whole of the country between them. One of these cities, 
Hippos, lay a little way to the east of the Sea of Galilee. 
Its territory appears to have bordered on the lake. The 
Greek inhabitants kept pigs, which were forbidden to the 
Jews. It was here that Jesus found the herd of many 
swine feeding. Two of the cities of the Decapolis, 
Scythopolis (Bethshean) and Pella, lay in the Jordan 
valley far to the south of the Sea of Galilee. Christ must 
frequently have passed them on his way to and from 
Jerusalem, but, so far as we know, he never entered them. 
All the cities of the Decapolis were adorned with colon- 
naded streets, beautiful temples, and theaters. Architec- 
turally they were much more attractive than the Jewish 
cities. 

On the east of the Jordan, beginning probably at the 
great valley of the Yarmuk, some miles south of the Sea 
of Galilee, lay Persea. It extended southward to the 
valley of the Arnon about midway of the Dead Sea; it 
therefore embraced Gilead and the northern half of what 
had been Moab in the Old Testament time. Many Jews 
were, in the time of Christ, scattered through this region ; 
to it, as we shall see, Jesus went to minister. 

Politically, the country we have described passed 
through several changes during the life of Christ. When 
Christ was born Herod the Great was still ruling. Under 
his sway all these lands, extending well up toward Damas- 
cus, had been united since 37 B.C. Herod died four 
years before the beginning of our era, and his lands were 
divided among his sons. Archelaus received Judaea and 
Samaria; Antipas, Galilee and Peraea, and Philip the 
regions toward Damascus (Ituraea and Trachonitis). 
Antipas and Philip held their territories during the life- 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 13 

time of Jesus, but Archelaus proved such an impossible 
ruler that Augustus, the Roman emperor, banished him 
in 6 A.D. to Gaul and placed Judsea and Samaria under 
Roman procurators. This arrangement continued till 41 
A.D. The fifth of these procurators was Pontius Pilate. 



CHAPTER II 

THE FOUR GOSPELS 

WE obtain our knowledge of^ the life of Jesus 
from the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, and John. These four Gospels have been 
the generally received sources of information as to the 
life of Jesus since the early years of the second century 
of the Christian era. During the second century they 
were not the only Gospels in circulation. We hear of a 
Gospel according to the Hebrews, ,a Gospel according to 
the Egyptians, a Gospel of Marcion, and a Gospel ac- 
cording to Peter. A fragment of the last was found in 
Egypt several years ago and quotations from the others 
are known. It is certain that each of these four Gospels 
was based on one or more of our New Testament Gospels, 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Their authors modi- 
fied the gospel story in various ways to suit the ideas of 
different classes of people. Their books were, however, 
never read and accepted by all Christians as reliable ac- 
counts of the life of Jesus. 

In addition to these Gospels, but of later date by about 
two centuries, there are a number of Apocryphal Gospels, 
such as the Gospel of James, the Infancy of Mary and 
Jesus, the Nativity of the Carpenter, the Gospel of 
Thomas, the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, and the Gos- 
pel of Nicodemus, which attempt to tell more of the child- 
hood and youth of Jesus than our four Gospels do. For 
example, one of them relates that, when Jesus was a little 
boy playing with other children, they all modeled some 

14 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 15 

clay birds ; whereupon Jesus suddenly gave life to his bird 
and it flew away. Such stories are of no historical value. 
They are simply the imaginings of pious Christians as 
they tried to think what Jesus, the Incarnate God, might 
have done. For a life of Jesus that is to be really his- 
torical we have to rely on the four Gospels — Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John. 

The task of putting together what these Gospels tell 
us so as to make a connected account of Jesus' life is not, 
however, so simple as it used to be thought. Modern 
literary study has brought to light much information as 
to how our Gospels were written and, as you will see, one 
must take some of this into account if he would write 
real history. One of the most striking facts that has to 
be noted is that while Matthew, Mark, and Luke all give 
much the same outline of the life of Christ, the Gospel of 
John stands apart from them, differing from them not 
only in many details but in its whole portrait of Christ. 
In particular the following outstanding points should be 
observed : 

1. According to the Synoptists, as Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke are called (since they present much the same 
synopsis of the life of the Master), the ministry of Jesus 
lasted only a little over a year and he attended one Pass- 
over, that at which he was crucified. According to the 
Gospel of John it lasted over two years and, perhaps, over 
three years, and he attended three Passovers (those men- 
tioned in John 2 : 23, 6:4, and 1 1 : 55). If the unnamed 
feast mentioned in John 5 : 1 was a Passover, as many 
think, then, according to this Gospel, he attended four 
Passovers and his ministry extended over more than three 
years. Thus John differs from the other Gospels as to 
the length of Jesus' ministry. 

2. According to the Synoptic Gospels the ministry of 



1 6 Jesus of Nazareth 

Jesus was expended mainly upon Galilee. There is no 
statement that Jesus went to Jerusalem during his min- 
istry except at the time he was arrested, condemned, and 
crucified. According to John, the ministry of Jesus was 
spent mainly in Judaea. John, however, knew of a Gali- 
lean ministry (see John 7: 1), though he did not de- 
scribe it. John thus differs in a good degree from the 
other Gospels as to the place of Christ's ministry. 

3. In the Synoptic Gospels Jesus is pictured as teach- 
ing in monologue. He speaks right on ; no one interrupts 
him. His sayings, too, are often each a kind of jewel, 
complete in itself. The Beatitudes in Matthew 5 : 1 ff . 
are a good example of this. Each one is complete and 
beautiful in itself ; they have no organic connection with 
one another. Like the sayings in much of the book of 
Proverbs, they touch like marbles in a bag and are not 
related like the parts of a connected discourse. On the 
other hand, the sayings in John are connected discourses ; 
one part is dependent on another. In John, too, the Dis- 
ciples are represented as interrupting Jesus and asking 
him questions, thus making his teaching take the form 
of a dialogue. 

4. In the Synoptic Gospels Jesus is portrayed as a 
great worker of wonders who called himself "The Son of 
Man." He is pictured as having a real humanity; he 
"grew in wisdom and stature." Most of the miracles are 
recorded in these Gospels. In the Gospel of John the 
emphasis is different. He portrays Jesus as "The Son 
of God." His human needs and human development are 
veiled. While John records three or four miracles, the 
pages of his Gospel are filled for the most part with dis- 
courses of Jesus. 

5. The Synoptic Gospels represent Jesus as calling him- 
self "The Son of Man," a title that had been applied by 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 17 

one pre-Christian writer to the Messiah, but which in the 
Aramaic language which was spoken in Galilee meant also 
"human being." It was a term that concealed his Mes- 
sianic claim, though it had in it the possibility of reveal- 
ing that claim. According to the Synoptists, however, no 
one suspected for a long time that Jesus was the Messiah. 
He did not reveal the fact to his Disciples until a few 
weeks before the end of his earthly career. Up to that 
time it was a secret locked in his own breast; even the 
Disciples had to be trained before they could be trusted 
with it. In the Gospel of John on the other hand, Jesus 
is represented in the first chapter as announcing his Mes- 
siahship to Nathaniel, a stranger; he is also pictured as 
arguing it publicly with the Jews in many later passages 
of the Gospel. These representations cannot both be 
true; they are mutually exclusive. There can be little 
doubt but that as to this matter Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke give us the real history, for, as we shall see, they 
were written long before the Gospel of John, and their 
picture accords far more nearly with that sound method 
of teaching that we must suppose that the Great Teacher 
would follow. 

6. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke it is clearly stated 
that the last supper that Jesus ate with his Disciples was a 
Passover (Matt. 26: 17; Mark 14: 12; Luke 22:8 and 
15). In John, on the other hand, the last supper was 
eaten on the day before the Passover (see John 13:29; 
18:28). John differs, then, from the other Gospels as 
to the date of the last supper and the character of the 
meal. 

7. In the Synoptic Gospels the vision of the descend- 
ing Spirit and the hearing of the words: "Thou art my 
beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased," at the time of 
Jesus' baptism was an experience of Jesus himself. He 



1 8 Jesus of Nazareth 

heard the voice; he saw the vision; the words were ad- 
dressed to him (see Mark 1:11). In the Gospel of 
John, Jesus is considered so divine that it seemed incon- 
ceivable that he could need such an experience. It is 
accordingly represented as a sign given for the benefit 
of John the Baptist (see John i : 31-33). 

Such examples might be multiplied. Enough has been 
said, however, to show that the Gospel of John had a 
literary origin in a place or circle where it was in a 
good degree independent of the traditions and concep- 
tions which are set forth in the other three Gospels. 
This is sufficient for our present purpose. The deeper 
questions raised by these differences will be treated at a 
later point. 

According to early Christian documents, one of which 
was written as early as the middle of the second century, 
the Gospel of John was composed later than the other 
three. This confirms the impression made by some of 
the facts already noted. 



CHAPTER III 

THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE 

IF, then, we are to ask what light modern literary 
investigation has thrown upon the origin of the 
Gospels, on the time when they were written, by 
whom they were written, and what opportunities their 
authors had to learn about the life of Jesus, we natu- 
rally begin with the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke. Tradition long ago ascribed the authorship 
of Matthew to the Apostle Matthew, of Mark, to John 
Mark, a companion of St. Peter and St. Paul, and of 
Luke, to Luke the Physician, a companion of St. Paul. 
The earliest Christian writings which tell anything of 
the Gospels make it evident that each of these persons 
did indeed write something concerning the life and 
teachings of Jesus, but it is not always so certain that 
what they wrote is identical with the Gospels which we 
have. For example, Papias, a writer of the second 
century, says that "Matthew wrote the oracles of the 
Lord in a Hebrew dialect and that every one interpreted 
them as he could" — a statement that cannot apply to our 
Gospel according to Matthew, which contains in itself 
evidence that it was written in Greek. It is probable 
that what Matthew wrote was a collection of the sayings 
of Jesus, which was afterward incorporated into what 
we now have as the Gospel of Matthew. We learn 
from the preface of the Gospel of Luke (Luke i : 1-4) 
that before that Gospel was written there had been many 
attempts at Gospel-writing made by others, and that St. 

19 



20 Jesus of Nazareth 

Luke used some of these previously written Gospels as 
sources of information. It is as certain as anything can 
well be that the author of our present Gospel of Mat- 
thew did the same, and that the Hebrew Gospel which 
Papias says Matthew wrote was one of the sources from 
which he drew. 

Not to go into too great detail, modern literary study 
has shown that Mark was the first of our four Gospels 
to be written, and that it was one of the principal sources 
employed by Matthew and Luke. All of Mark except 
twenty-four verses is contained in Matthew and Luke. 
Mark is much more brief than the other Gospels, but is 
nevertheless much more vivid and lifelike in its descrip- 
tions and accounts. It seems much more like the account 
of an eye-witness than any of the other Gospels. Papias 
tells us that it was written by Mark, who obtained his 
knowledge of what Jesus said and did from Peter. The 
contents of the Gospel of Mark bear out this statement. 
For the main substance of Mark's story, then, we have 
the authority of the Apostle Peter, an eye-witness of 
many of the events recorded. The original ending of 
Mark's Gospel was accidentally torn off and lost. The 
last twelve verses of chapter 16 were added from a. dif- 
ferent document. It is said that they were written by 
a man named Aristion, who lived at the beginning of 
the second century. 

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke were written later 
than Mark and, as has been said, drew upon Mark as 
one of their sources. Scholars are agreed that they had 
at least one other written source which was used by them 
both. This source, they believe, consisted of sayings of 
Jesus, though it contained an account of his baptism and 
temptation. Other scholars think that the authors of 
Matthew and Luke used two sources in common, one 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 21 

of which contained an account of Jesus' ministry in 
Galilee, and the other an account of the ministry of 
Jesus in Peraea. Those who hold the last of these 
theories think that the author of Matthew wove into 
his Gospel the "Oracles of the Lord" which the Apostle 
Matthew had written in Hebrew, and that Luke wove 
into his Gospel a second account of the ministry of 
Jesus in Peraea which contained the parables of the lost 
coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son (Luke 15) and 
much other material which is not found in Matthew. 
All the documents from which the evangelists drew were 
written very early and at least two of them, the writer 
believes, gained their information from the apostles, 
Peter and Matthew. Probably the other writers gained 
their knowledge from eye-witnesses; indeed, the docu- 
ments may have been written by eye-witnesses. These 
facts, which have been established by much painstaking 
investigation, make these three Gospels historical sources 
of the highest value. 

What we have said of the sources of the Gospels of 
Matthew and Luke does not apply to the first two chap- 
ters of either of those Gospels, or to the genealogy of 
the Master in the third chapter of Luke. The first gen- 
eration of Christians were too busy assimilating the 
good news of the Gospel to ask how Jesus came into the 
world. When in the second generation of Christians 
interest turned to this matter, it was found that there 
were two differing traditions. Matthew followed one 
of these, according to which Jesus was descended from 
David through the royal line, was born at Bethlehem 
where his mother and Joseph had lived up to that time, 
and went with them to live at Nazareth because they 
were afraid of Archelaus, king of Judaea. According to 
the other, recorded in Luke, Joseph and Mary lived at 



22 Jesus of Nazareth 

Nazareth in Galilee, went to Bethlehem, the home of 
their ancestors, to be enrolled in a census ordered by 
the Roman emperor Augustus, and Jesus was born while 
they were there. The two accounts are evidently inde- 
pendent traditions. Their differences leave us in doubt 
as to the details concerning which they differ. We shall 
return to this matter in a later chapter. 

Many scholars think that the Gospel of Mark was 
written about the year 70 A.D. and that the Gospels of 
Matthew and Luke were composed within the next ten 
years. There is, however, reason to believe that they 
were written earlier than that. The Acts of the Apostles 
was written by the author of the Gospel of Luke. The 
Acts of the Apostles breaks off its story of the life of 
St. Paul with the year 63 A.D. Why did it stop so 
abruptly then? The natural reply would seem to be: 
St. Luke wrote then and had brought his narrative up 
to the time he was writing. If this be so, the Gospel of 
Luke must have been written earlier (compare Luke 1 : 3 
with Acts 1:1), probably during St. Paul's imprison- 
ment at Csesarea, 58-60 A.D. If this be true the Gospel 
of Mark and the other sources employed by Luke must 
have been written still earlier. Thus one could suppose 
that the Gospel of Mark was composed as early as 50 
A.D., within twenty years of the Crucifixion. Indeed, 
one scholar has made a plausible argument that Mark 
13: 14 was written after the Roman Emperor, Caligula, 
in 39 A.D. had ordered his statue set up in the Temple 
at Jerusalem and before the death of Caligula in 41 
A.D. If the whole Gospel were written at one time, the 
date of its composition would, according to this view, 
be between the years 39 and 41 A.D. or within ten or 
twelve years of the Crucifixion. While the majority of 
New Testament scholars are not yet convinced of the 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 23 

correctness of this view, the writer feels its great force 
and is inclined to believe that it is right and that these 
early dates are probable. The investigations which have 
thrown so much light on the way in which the Synoptic 
Gospels were composed have made it clear that they are 
sources of information of high historical value and au- 
thority. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 

WHEN we turn to the problem of the authorship 
and date of the Gospel of John we are met 
by many conflicting facts and opinions. There 
is now general agreement that this Gospel was written 
considerably later than the other three, i.e., somewhere 
about ioo A.D. ; perhaps a few years earlier, or possibly 
a few years later. Eusebius, about 325 A.D., records a 
tradition that it was written at Ephesus by the Apostle 
John at the request of other Christians, in order to tell 
what the other Gospels had omitted and that John, then 
at a great age, did what they asked. Wherever the 
Gospel is mentioned in early Christian literature it is 
attributed to the Apostle John. Those who depend on 
the external evidence only hold that St. John, the 
Apostle, was its author. 

Others object that it is highly improbable that a man 
who had been one of the twelve Disciples, and especially 
one of the three who stood closest to Jesus, should have 
in his old age so far forgotten the historical perspective 
as to represent Jesus as publicly debating his Messiah- 
ship throughout his ministry, in the manner already 
mentioned, as the Gospel of John does. There are many 
other things which, in the minds of these scholars, it is 
equally difficult to suppose that one of the fishermen of 
Galilee wrote. This opinion is strengthened by a frag- 
ment of a work of Papias, the writer of the second cen- 
tury already mentioned, which states that the Apostle 
John was, along with his brother James, slain by the 

24 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 25 

Jews. If this be true, as is also implied by Mark 
10:35-40 and Matthew 20:20-23, he must have been 
put to death before the year 70 A.D. and did not live 
to settle in Ephesus and write this Gospel. 

Papias, who in his youth associated freely with the 
Christian circle at Ephesus and was deeply interested 
to inquire what the Apostles said, mentions a John whom 
he calls the Elder, or the Presbyter. It used to be sup- 
posed that it was in this way that Papias referred to the 
Apostle John, but it is now believed by a growing number 
of scholars that this Presbyter John was not the same as 
the Apostle (John was a common name among Jews and 
Jewish Christians), and some believe that it was this John 
who wrote the Gospel. 

A theory advocated by one scholar is that the Disciple 
whom Jesus loved (John 13:23; 19:26), whom he be- 
lieves to have been other than St. John, composed the 
Gospel. Others think that we cannot now discern across 
the centuries the name of the disciple who held the pen 
that wrote this wonderful book; that probably early 
Christianity was far more rich in marvelous and inspired 
personalities than we usually suppose, and that it is far 
more profitable to ask why the Gospel was written than 
to discuss the difficult problem as to who the writer was. 
All agree that the writer was a Jewish Christian, that he 
lived in Ephesus about 100 A.D., and that he had come 
into possession of a genuine tradition concerning Jesus. 

When we question the Gospel itself as to why it was 
composed, it becomes clear that in writing it the author 
had several aims in mind. For one thing he strongly op- 
posed the Jews. From the time of St. Paul there had been 
acute friction between the synagogue and the church, and 
there is evidence that this friction at Ephesus was espe- 
cially fomented by a few individuals at the time this 



26 Jesus of Nazareth 

Gospel was written. This accounts for the opposition to 
the Jews manifested throughout the work. 

Another aim of the writer was to oppose the sect of 
John the Baptist. This sect, mentioned in the Acts of the 
Apostles (Acts 19: 3), continued to exist into the second 
century. The opposition of the writer of the Gospel of 
John to this sect is much less pronounced than that 
against the Jews. He seeks rather to show them that 
John was but a forerunner, who had himself testified to 
the temporary character of his mission, and thus to win 
them to< Christianity. 

Still another aim that was in the writer's mind was to 
oppose the notions of a sect called Gnostics. They were 
so called because they relied upon knowledge for salva- 
tion rather than upon faith. One of the chief articles 
of the creed of these people was that matter and flesh 
were too impure to come into contact with God. 
God, so some of them declared, was not really incarnate 
in Jesus Christ; he only seemed to be. At the very be- 
ginning of the Gospel, the ground is cut from under the 
feet of the Gnostics. It is declared that the Word, who 
was in the beginning with God and was divine, became 
flesh and tabernacled among men (John 1 : 1-12) — an 
assertion horrible to the Gnostics. 

In stating this the author did not indeed make a new 
departure in Christian thought. St. Paul, in his Epistle 
to the Colossians, had in other words interpreted the na- 
ture of Jesus in the same way in order to oppose the 
Gnostics. The author of the Gospel of John was, how- 
ever, the first to introduce the idea into the gospel story 
and he thereby set forth the meaning for the universe of 
the life of the Master. This meaning was, from the Jew- 
ish point of view, implied in the idea of the Messiah, for 
to the Jews the Messiah stood in such unique relation to 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 2j 

God that he occupied a central place in the history of 
the world. The Gospel of John expresses the same truth 
with reference to Jesus more nearly in the terms of the 
Greek philosophy of his day. If space permitted it could 
be shown that the writer had also other aims in mind — 
that he sought, for example, to correct certain tendencies 
of the Church of his time. Enough has, however, been 
said to indicate why the Gospel was written. 

Whoever this writer was he was, next after St. Paul, 
the first Christian theologian. He was more interested in 
ideas than in outward events ; in the words of Jesus than 
in his acts. We cannot, for reasons that will be pointed 
out later, accept his chronology. Tatian, the earliest 
writer on the life of Christ, who lived within fifty years 
of the time when this Gospel was written, did not do 
that, but rightly saw that the Passover mentioned in 
John 2 : 23 is identical with that spoken of in Matthew, 
chapters 21-26, and that John places these events too 
.early. As one studies the Gospel of John, however, the 
conviction grows that the writer had access to a genuine 
tradition of the words of Jesus. He has, apparently re- 
ported this tradition in his own way, seizing upon the 
ideas of the Master and expressing them in his own 
words, but many of the ideas are too sublime for any 
one but Jesus to have originated. One instinctively feels 
that it would take one as great as Jesus to invent them, 
and, great as many early Christians were, such greatness 
was not theirs. If, then, we follow the Synoptic outline 
of the Master's life rather than that of John, we thank- 
fully turn to him for some of the thoughts of Jesus that 
we treasure most and are grateful that he helps us, as 
he has many during eighteen hundred years, to appreciate 
the surpassing value of that unique life that was lived in 
Palestine. 



CHAPTER V 

WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT OF THE WORLD WHEN 
JESUS LIVED 

WE can not rightly understand the life of Jesus 
without spending a little time in thinking our- 
selves back to the point of view of the people 
of his time. He not only lived when there were no auto- 
mobiles, telephones, railways, and telegraphs, but before 
men had any idea that the earth was round. The men 
of that period thought that the earth was flat and that 
the sky was a sort of bell-shaped firmament overarching 
the earth. The lightning that flashed out of the East was 
believed to shine even unto the West. It was thought 
that one could see from one extremity of the earth to the 
other, if only he could ascend a mountain high enough. 
Thus the Devil is said to have shown Jesus all the king- 
doms of the world in a moment of time from the top of 
a high mountain. The stars were thought to be shining 
lights set in the firmament, somewhat as we have electric 
lights on the ceiling of a room. The earth was believed 
to be the center of things; the sun was believed to re- 
volve about it. Each night it was thought the sun passed 
by an underground tunnel from the West to the East, 
whence it emerged to rise in the morning. 

The most westerly regions known to the people of that 
time were the shores of Africa and Portugal just outside 
the Pillars of Hercules, as the mountains on each side of 
the Straits of Gibraltar were called. How much of the 
country to the east the people of Palestine knew is un- 

28 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 29 

certain. More than three hundred years before, Alex- 
ander the Great had conquered western India. Two hun- 
dred and fifty years before, a king of India had sent am- 
bassadors to five kings of the Mediterranean lands, but 
we have no evidence that the people of Palestine in the 
time of Christ knew anything of India. They knew fairly 
well the Roman Empire, which included all the lands 
about the Mediterranean. It extended to the Euphrates 
River at the point where that river approaches most 
nearly the Mediterranean. Between the Euphrates and 
the borders of India lay the empire of Parthia. This was 
fairly well known to Palestinian Jews, as many Jews lived 
in the Parthian dominions. Away to the far east across 
the deserts of central Asia lay the empire of China, then 
two thousand years old. A hundred and forty years be- 
fore the time of Christ caravans had begun to trade be- 
tween China and Parthia. From that time onward small 
quantities of Chinese goods reached the Roman domin- 
ions through Parthia, the Parthians acting as middlemen. 
Merchandise from China was, however, bought by the 
rich only, and it is doubtful if the name of China was 
known to any one in Palestine. Possibly vague notions of 
it may have reached Herod, but for the common people 
nothing was known of the world east of Parthia. On 
the north the Scythians of Russia were known; on the 
south Ophir, which seems to have included South Arabia 
and Somaliland. Small as such a world seems to us, to 
the Palestinian Jews it seemed great. When they went 
up to Jerusalem to their festivals three times a year and 
met Jews from Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, vari- 
ous parts of Asia Minor, Crete, Cyrene, and other parts 
of North Africa, Egypt, and Arabia, they felt that they 
were rubbing elbows with men from the ends of the 
earth. 



30 Jesus of Nazareth 

The conception that the men of Jesus' time had of the 
phenomena of nature and of disease were even more dif- 
ferent from those that prevail to-day than their ideas of 
the physical world were. We think of everything as con- 
trolled by law. The earth revolves about the sun in 
obedience to the laws of gravitation and motion ; trees and 
plants grow in accordance with the laws of their nature; 
diseases spread and are cured in accordance with the laws 
of the multiplication of germs or of their destruction. To 
the men of the first century all such laws were unknown. 
The world was believed to be full of spirits. Every rock, 
tree, and shrub had its spirit; the air was filled with in- 
visible beings. Some of these were good, some bad. All 
of them were more powerful than men. These spirits 
could do anything. They could enter into a man and 
give him sickness ; they could kill him. They could take 
possession of a person and make him speak in ecstasy or 
make him act like a madman. All insane persons were be- 
lieved to be under the power of demons or evil spirits. 

In a word, the men of that time lived in an enchanted 
world. All things, they believed, were possible. Natu- 
rally stories of boundless marvels were told in all nations. 
Men expected miracles; they lacked the scientific spirit; 
they easily credited stories of marvels. There is in all 
ancient religions a kind of law of the growth of miracu- 
lous tales. They start from taking as a fact some striking 
figure of speech, or increasing the emphasis upon some 
providential circumstance, and end in a story that seems 
to be a miracle. Thus stories of miracles in every country 
attached themselves to all persons of unusual character 
and reputation, especially to all who gained a reputation 
for unusual sanctity. The atmosphere of that ancient 
world is preserved in the Arabian Nights Tales. One 
finds there the same unconsciousness of the limitations 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 31 

placed upon us by the laws of time and space that pre- 
vailed in all the world at the time of Christ. Solomon 
can control spirits by his ring; hoopoes can see water 
under the earth as men see it in the bottom of a glass; 
a jinn may be now a gazelle and now a beautiful maiden. 

One who would study the life of Christ scientifically 
must take account of this change of atmosphere, or, in 
other words, must reckon with the change in the theory of 
the universe which has taken place since then. This con- 
stitutes the most difficult and perplexing of the problems 
which face the modern student. The problem is, in brief, 
this : miracles are attributed to other founders of re- 
ligions — to Zoroaster in Persia, to Gautama, the founder 
of Buddhism in India, to Vardhamana, the founder of 
Jainism in India, and to many others. Are the miracles 
attributed to Jesus more real than those attributed to 
others? If the prevailing theory of the world led men to 
expect miracles and easily to believe in them, may not cer- 
tain features of some stories in the Gospels be due to this 
ancient habit of mind? 

With reference to this problem people of to-day take 
three different attitudes. ( 1 ) There are some who insist 
that every word in our Gospels must be taken at its face 
value. These people think that all Biblical miracles are 
real and that all others are but fabricated stories. They 
believe that the accounts of miracles outside the Bible are 
imitations of the genuine Biblical miracles, and should not 
weaken our faith in them. Just as a false imitation of a 
thing implies that there is a genuine thing to be imitated, 
so the class of persons under consideration take the false 
miracles as a confirmation of those related in the Bible. 
(2) At the other extreme there are those who reject all 
miracles and who have little or no faith in the Gospels 
because they narrate miraculous events. (3) There are 



32 Jesus of Nazareth 

those who believe that they discover by the study of many 
cases that there are certain laws that govern the growth 
of miraculous stories and who seek by applying these laws 
to find what reality probably lay behind the accounts of 
marvelous events. 

With reference to certain of the miracles of Christ, i.e., 
miracles of healing, there is now general assent on the 
part of most scholars that they really happened. Enough 
is known to-day of the power of faith to heal and also 
of the health-giving influence of inspiring, magnetic per- 
sonalities, to make the healing miracles of Jesus altogether 
credible. In the possession of those powers of silent in- 
fluence by which one mind or one person influences an- 
other for his good, Jesus surpassed all who have ever 
lived. When the insane and sick came under ihis power, 
it is no wonder that they were healed. This could hap- 
pen in accordance with laws that we are only now just 
beginning to understand. We do> not know much about 
them, only enough to convince us that such things do 
happen in this world. 

With reference to what are called "nature-miracles," 
such as the miraculous multiplication of a few barley 
loaves and fishes so as to feed four or five thousand peo- 
ple, three different attitudes are taken by Christians who 
are all equally devout. ( i ) Some accept the account un- 
questioningly. Jesus was God incarnate and they feel no 
hesitation in believing that he overrode the natural laws 
that must ordinarily operate in the production of food. 
(2) There are others who are greatly perplexed by the 
narrative. They are impressed by the fact that, as we 
learn nature's laws by studying God's works, the laws 
of nature seem to be God's habitual ways of acting, and, 
so far as our experience goes, he does not vary them. 
Such people have tried hard to find some incident in har- 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 33 

mony with the known laws of nature that would account 
for the rise of this story. There are at least six different 
explanations which have been proposed. Into these we 
need not go at this point. They are recounted and criti- 
cized in a later chapter. 1 We need only note now that the 
difficulty arises because our theory of the constitution 
and laws of the universe differs from that of the men who 
listened to Jesus and wrote the Gospels. It is a note- 
worthy fact, however, that the best scientists are less self- 
confident than they were twenty-five years ago as to what 
is and what is not possible. The discovery of the X-rays, 
by which photographs may be taken through seemingly 
solid substances, and the discovery of radium, which pos- 
sesses powers which can act contrary to all the natural 
laws which were previously known, have taught those who 
love the truth to be cautious and humble in the presence 
of the unknown. These discoveries suggest that in time 
enough may be learned so that other marvels will seem as 
credible to us as healing miracles do now. 

Whether this happens or not, it is important, in this 
connection, to remember that a physical marvel is not a 
guarantee of ethical and spiritual superiority. It was not 
in the time of Christ and it is not now. In the time of 
Christ people were in doubt whether miracles indicated 
the presence of a spirit from God or of a demon from 
Satan. 2 Even to them the evidence that a man was from 
God depended upon the ethical character which he mani- 
fested and the spiritual influence which he exerted over 
them. The same is true to-day. We might marvel at the 
skill of an acrobat, or the wonders that a man could per- 
form with X-rays, radium, electricity, or some other ele- 

1 Chapter XLV, p. 278 ff. 

2 See Mark 3:22; Matt. 9:34; and 12:24; Luke 11:15, also 
Chapter XXXI of this book. 



34 Jesus of Nazareth 

ment as yet undiscovered, and yet not be convinced by 
these marvels that he was a good, pure man, kind to his 
family, honest in business, or the kind of man one would 
like to have his daughter marry. Spiritual and ethical 
truth are really independent of physical miracles and al- 
ways have been. Such truth is spiritually discerned. 
When men believe in miracles, an account of a marvel 
prepares their minds to receive spiritual truth, for such 
belief helps them to the worshipful state of mind in which 
spiritual truth may be seen. For modern men the wor- 
shipful state of mind is more often produced by other 
means. 

In facing this problem one should seek the aid of par- 
ents and pastors. It is all important that each one form 
in his or her mind an image of Jesus against a background 
that will make him seem most real. It is only thus that 
his life — the most holy and powerful life for good that 
has ever been lived in the world — can have real influence 
upon us. As we live at a time when one theory of the 
world is passing away and another is taking its place, each 
must make his mental picture in accordance with what 
seems to him reality. Only so can he find Jesus a real 
Saviour — One who is able to help him in the actual diffi- 
culties in which he finds himself. 

It should, however, be borne in mind by all that, if 
in Jesus, God has revealed himself as nowhere else in 
the world, as we devoutly believe he has, the great facts 
of that revelation are superior to any theory of the uni- 
verse that may happen to be held at any period of the 
world's history, and are therefore independent of such 
theories. That God spoke with great power through 
those facts and through the voice of the Master to the 
men of the first century, can be doubted by no one who 
reads the history of Christianity in the first centuries of 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 35 

its life. If Jesus embodied and revealed reality, however, 
that reality must be capable of being viewed through the 
medium of the world-theories of to-day — it must be able, 
when so viewed, to speak as powerfully and helpfully to 
the men of to-day as it did to the first disciples. If the 
facts are real, they will still speak as powerfully to the 
men of the thirtieth century when, in consequence of their 
enlarged scientific knowledge, they may have left behind 
our theories of the universe and have made better ones. 

In other words, the educated Christian of the present 
day, who knows Christ by experience, who is certain of 
the blessedness that he gives to those who have faith in 
him, will be slow to declare that in order to obtain that 
blessedness one must, in scientific matters, accept the 
world-theories that prevailed when the Gospels were 
written. He has such faith in Jesus that he believes 
him to be superior to all such theories; he knows that 
Jesus will outlive them all ; he believes that through them 
all Jesus will make his inspiring and saving power knowi . 
to men. He holds the real supernatural to be the ethically 
pure, the religiously perfect — the spiritual. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 

IN the homes of religious people the life and habits 
of the family are moulded by the religious institu- 
tions of the time. The religious background of the 
life of Jesus is, of course, the institutions and customs of 
Judaism. In theory the central institution of the Jewish 
religion at that time was the Temple with its ritual. The 
splendid temple of Solomon had been destroyed by 
Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. The poorer structure built 
between 519 and 516 B.C. had in the reign of king Herod 
seemed dingy and rude in comparison with the splendid 
palace and fortress which he had built. Herod had ac- 
cordingly torn it down in the year 20-19 B.C. and in the 
space of eighteen months had erected as the sanctuary a 
new and more splendid building on its site. The walls 
were of white marble with plates of gold upon the front. 
In front of the Temple was an open court where, upon 
a ledge of rock over a sacred cave that for many hun- 
dreds of years men had regarded as holy, stood the altar 
of burnt offerings. This was surrounded by a court, the 
Court of the Priests. In this court was the laver that 
had replaced the brazen sea constructed by Solomon. A 
part, at least, of the Court of the Priests was on the 
east of the Court of Israel. This court may have en- 
compassed the Court of the Priests on the north and 
south also. As to this point our authorities conflict. A 
low wall, a cubit x in height, marked off the Court of 
1 A cubit was about eighteen inches. 

36 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 37 

Israel from the Court of the Priests. Here the men of 
"The Congregation" of Israel could assemble to witness 
the sacrifices. To the east of the Court of Israel and 
fifteen steps lower than it, lay the Court of the Women. 
Women were not allowed to enter the Court of Israel. 
From an elevated seat on the east side of their court the 
women could watch the sacred ceremonies of the Temple. 
With the exception of this gallery the Court of the 
Women was open to men. Around these courts ran a 
wall forty-three feet high. This wall had four gates on 
the north, four on the south, and one on the east. A gate 
also led from the Court of the Women to the Court of 
Israel. One of these gates, either that leading into the 
Court of Israel or the one in the east wall, it is uncertain 
which, was made of Corinthian bronze. It was some- 
times called "The Gate Beautiful'' (see Acts 3:2), and 
sometimes in honor of its donor "Xicanor's Gate." This 
Nicanor was, of course, a Jew. 

All these courts were on an elevated portion of the 
Temple area into which no Gentile was permitted to go. 
If one ventured into this area he was put to death. 
Lower than this area and extending over much of the 
hill-top on which the Temple stood was the Court of 
the Gentiles. This court was surrounded by beautiful 
colonnades. Though begun in 19 B.C., these outer struc- 
tures were not all completed until 64 A.D., only six years 
before the Temple was finally destroyed. In the time of 
Christ the Temple (i.e., the courts and colonnades) had 
been "forty and six years" in building (John 2 : 20). 

While there were in this temple daily sacrifices, only 
people living in Jerusalem could attend them, and but few 
of them came to the Temple every day. Jews living in 
Galilee could worship in the Temple only on great festive 
occasions and then they had to make a long journey to do 



38 Jesus of Nazareth 

so. This led to the evolution of the synagogues, of which 
more will be said shortly. There were three festivals for 
which the laws of the Pentateuch required Jews to come 
to Jerusalem. They were the Passover, which occurred in 
March or April, the Feast of Weeks (also called Pente- 
cost), which came seven weeks after the Passover, and 
the Feast of Tabernacles, which fell in October. In the 
time of Christ Jews were so widely scattered that by no 
means all could observe this law, but strict Jews in Pales- 
tine doubtless made an effort to obey it. Passover and the 
Feast of Tabernacles were especially holy gatherings, and 
special effort would be made to attend these two in case 
it was not possible to attend the third. 

Two other festivals had been added to the three great 
ones at the time of the Maccabaean struggle for Jewish in- 
dependence, more than a hundred and fifty years before 
the birth of Christ. One of these, the Feast of the Dedi- 
cation (John 10:22), commemorated the cleansing and 
re-dedication of the Temple in December, 165 B.C., 
after the Syrians, who had denied it, had been driven out 
of it. The Syrians had nearly suppressed the Jewish re- 
ligion in Palestine and it was regarded as an event of such 
importance for the Jews to regain their Temple, that 
year by year in the Feast of the Dedication the event 
was commemorated. The other feast began in com- 
memoration of a victory over the Syrian general, Ni- 
canor, who was defeated and killed in March, 161 A.D. « 
By the time of Christ this was called the Feast of Purim, 
which occurred a month earlier than the Passover. Per- 
haps Jews living in Babylonia and Persia had observed 
this feast as Purim before the Feast of Nicanor (or 
Nicanor's Day) was observed as a yearly celebration in 
Palestine. Be this as it may, by the time of Christ the 
two had blended into one. The two minor festivals, 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 39 

Purim and the Feast of the Dedication, did not draw as 
many worshipers from a distance as did the three great 
festivals. Devout Jews living within easy reach of Jeru- 
salem no doubt attended them faithfully, but those living 
in Galilee did not feel the same obligation to make pil- 
grimages to attend them as they did to attend Passover, 
Pentecost, and Tabernacles. 

The distance of the Temple from most Jewish homes 
made it necessary that some other provision than the 
temple-services should be made for the nurture of their 
religious life. Accordingly in the time after the Baby- 
lonian Exile (586 B.C.) synagogues were built in every 
town and village. They were voluntary associations 
and could be formed by a minimum of ten male mem- 
bers. The synagogues were buildings, large or small, 
according to the numbers and wealth of those to be ac- 
commodated, in which on the Sabbath, and twice dur- 
ing the week, Jews assembled to hear the law and to be 
instructed in it. 

At the beginning of the Christian era the service be- 
gan by the reciting of Deut. 6 : 4-9, or at times verses 
4-15. These verses beginning: "Hear, O Israel, the 
Lord our God is one Lord," were regarded by the Jews 
as their creed and are still so regarded. In Hebrew the 
word for "hear," with which the passage begins, is 
shema, so the Jews call this part of the service "reciting 
the Shema." The whole congregation said the Shema, 
after which some prayers were said by a person called 
"the deputy of the congregation" who was appointed for 
the purpose. After this a lesson was read from the 
Pentateuch and one from the Prophets. The lessons 
were read in Hebrew, but, as the people spoke Aramaic 
and Hebrew had become a dead language to them, a 
translation or interpretation followed so that the con- 



40 Jesus of Nazareth 

gregation might understand what they had heard. After 
this a sermon generally was delivered, often based on 
one of the lessons of the day. The preacher was not 
always the same person. Any one had the right to ex- 
plain the Scriptures. If an important-looking stranger 
were present he would be asked to speak. The service 
concluded with the benediction of Num. 6 : 24-26. If a 
priest were present the benediction was pronounced by 
him; if there were no priest, it was pronounced by a 
layman. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 

APART of the Shema (Deut. 6:4-9, especially 
verse 7) required a Jew to teach its words 
diligently to his children. The education of a 
Jewish child was, in obedience to this command, begun 
by the parents. The words of the Shema were written 
on little pieces of parchment and fastened to the lintel 
and posts of the doors of their houses, and such writ- 
ings put into little boxes, called phylacteries, were bound 
at times to the forehead and wrists. Probably Jewish 
children learned their letters in order to read these little 
parchments. The Shema would be a child's first read- 
ing lesson. At an early age a child was taught a text 
of Scripture some words of which either began or ended 
with the letters of its name. Such a verse was regarded 
as a kind of special promise to the child and was inserted 
in its prayers. Children also soon learned certain Psalms 
that were sung on different days of the week or on the 
occasion of the great religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem. 
Such were Psalms 11 3- 118, called the "Hallel" or 
"Praise." 

The education begun in the home was continued in 
schools connected with the synagogue. Men skilled in 
the law, called rabbis, gave instruction in such knowl- 
edge as was requisite to read and understand the law. 
As Hebrew was a dead language, it required the learn- 
ing of its alphabet, vocabulary, and grammar. Probably 
practice was obtained by reading from different parts of 

41 



42 Jesus of Nazareth 

the Old Testament. Jesus received his education in the 
ways here indicated. He was such a proficient reader 
that he could read the lessons at the synagogue service 
on the Sabbath (Luke 4: 16). 

As the synagogue combined the functions of both 
church and school there were often collected in it other 
books than the great sacred rolls of the Law and the 
Prophets which were read on the Sabbath. These were 
closely guarded and were used only on public occasions. 
The needs of a school, however, would require separate 
copies of single books of the Bible; and there must have 
been many such. The line between sacred and secular 
books had not been fully determined at the time of 
Christ. Many books that the Pharisees at Jerusalem 
frowned upon were to be found in the libraries of coun- 
try synagogues, and it is almost certain that the library 
of the synagogue at Nazareth contained the Book of 
Enoch. 

In addition to Hebrew and the Old Testament the 
rabbis taught also something of the Oral Law. The 
Oral Law consisted of the traditions that had grown up 
in the effort to understand and observe the laws of the 
Pentateuch. For example, Lev. 19 : 9, 10 forbids a Jew 
to reap fully the corners of his field; he is to leave them 
that the poor and fatherless may come and gather the 
grain and so have something to live on. By the time of 
Christ it had become a very practical matter for Jewish 
farmers to know just what this law demanded of them. 
How much must be left in the corner? If one forgot 
to leave it in the corner, but left some standing grain in 
the middle of the field, did he fulfil the law? If, when 
he took his grain home he forgot some of it, could he 
go back and get it, or must he leave that for a corner? 
If the poor did not come after his corner, how long 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 43 

must he leave it? Could he ever go back and get it or 
must he let it spoil? If two men worked a field to- 
gether, must each leave a corner, or would one corner 
suffice? If a man raised two kinds of grain in his 
field must he leave a corner for each? Did the law of 
the corner apply only to grains, or did it apply also to 
fig orchards, olive orchards, and vineyards? 

The rabbis decided that a just man would leave one- 
sixtieth of a field as a "corner," though the amount 
might vary with the size of the field, the number of the 
poor, and the richness of the yield. If, however, one 
stalk was left standing the owner could not be said to 
have broken the law, since the sacred text did not de- 
fine the size of a "corner." They also held that the law 
was fulfilled, if the proper amount was left in the middle 
of the field; also that the law applied to leguminous 
plants, to the tanners' sumac tree, the carob tree, nut 
trees, almond trees, olive trees, date palms, vineyards, 
and pomegranates. If a field was sown with two kinds 
of grain, but had a single threshing-floor, they held that 
the owner should leave but a single "corner" for the 
field; if he had two threshing-floors, he must leave two 
"corners" ; also, if brothers divided a field, then each 
must leave a "corner" ; if they worked it in common, 
then one "corner" sufficed for both. These and many 
other questions were discussed and determined. For 
example, an important practical problem was whether 
the "corner" must be left before the tithes were paid 
or afterwards. 

In the same way the Oral Law contained traditional 
opinions as to the application of other laws in the Penta- 
teuch — laws as to the observance of the Sabbath, vows, 
prayers, utensils, holy days, clean and unclean hands, 
etc. When later these discussions were collected and 



44 Jesus of Nazareth 

written down, having been grouped under their different 
topics, they made sixty-three treatises. As the discus- 
sion on some of the laws was much more detailed than 
on "corners" it will readily be seen that the Oral Law 
constituted a large and intricate mass of learning. As to 
many of the points discussed the rabbis never agreed. 
Shortly before Christ was born, during the reign of 
Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.), two famous rabbis, Hillel 
and Shammai, flourished in Jerusalem. Shammai inter- 
preted every law of the Pentateuch strictly; Hillel in- 
terpreted it liberally. Each had his followers and so 
founded a school of interpretation. The opinions of 
both schools had to be learned by pupils in the syna- 
gogue. 

The method of teaching was this: The teacher sat, 
usually on the floor or on the ground or in the squatting 
position so common in the East, the pupils sitting simi- 
larly in a semicircle in front of him. The teacher would 
utter a sentence and the pupils would repeat it in con- 
cert after him. This would be continued and repeated 
until the tradition had been thoroughly memorized. 
Schools in which the pupils study aloud used to be called 
in the southern states "blab schools." The ancient Jew- 
ish schools might well be so called ! The Hebrew word 
for "repeat" is shana; a thing that is repeated is 
mishna. Later when the traditions on the sixty-three 
topics which 'were treated in the Jewish schools came 
to be written down the whole was called the "Mishna." 
It forms the basis of the Jewish Talmud. 

One of the tracts of the Mishna prescribes that at the 
age of five a boy should begin to study the Pentateuchal 
Law; at the age of ten, the Mishna, and at the age of 
fifteen, the other discussions of the Talmud. We can- 
not be sure that any of these regulations were in force 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 45 

when Jesus was a boy, or even that there were schools 
of the kind described, in Nazareth. Indeed, the regu- 
lation concerning the study of the Talmud must be later 
than the time of Christ. It is thought by many highly 
probable that the school system had been introduced into 
Nazareth before the time of Jesus and that provision 
was made for the study of the Written and Oral Law. 
It is true that at that time the Oral Law was in the 
early stages of its development, but it is certain that 
Jesus had come into contact with it, and that he highly 
disapproved of parts of it (see Matt. 15:6). It is 
probable that as a schoolboy he had sat at the feet of 
some teacher and been compelled to say over and over 
again traditional opinions that, to his growing insight, 
seemed to set aside commands of God written in the 
Old Testament. 

Schools in country villages might be taught by the 
Khazzan of the synagogue, an officer who assigned seats 
in the synagogue, gave the signal for responses, and 
performed in general the duties of janitor. The teach- 
ers of the higher and more important schools were called 
rabbis, a title which means "great" or "distinguished." 
A rabbi was distinguished for his learning in the law. 
Probably it was this class who are sometimes called in 
the Gospels "lawyers." The rabbis whom the leading 
Jews recognized as such had probably studied in some 
one of the schools of Jewish law. The common people, 
however, applied the title to any teacher who attracted 
general attention. It was applied to John the Baptist 
and to Jesus. 

Closely connected with the rabbis were the "scribes," 
whose principal work was to copy the Law and to write 
the little extracts from it on parchment which were 
needed for the phylacteries and the door-posts of the 



46 Jesus of Nazareth 

houses. Scribes were from the nature of their occupa- 
tion learned in the Law and their opinions were often 
appealed to. Just what the dividing line between them 
and the rabbis was in the time of Christ is not clear. 
Scribes sold the books and parchments which they cop- 
ied, but rabbis were expected to earn their living by 
some trade and to teach for nothing. They were paid 
only when they gave their full time to teaching and then 
were given a mere pittance. Thus the great Hillel, men- 
tioned above, worked as a wood-chopper for half a 
denarius (about eight cents) a day. Shammai was a 
builder. In later times it was said that a rabbi worked 
at his trade one-third of the day and studied the re- 
mainder of it. 



CHAPTER VIII 

JEWISH SECTS AND IDEALS IN THE TIME OF CHRIST 

BOTH the scribes and the rabbis belonged to the sec- 
tion of the Jews known as Pharisees, i.e., people 
who separated themselves from the common herd 
who were careless in their observance of the Law. The 
Pharisees preferred the name "Associates." After the 
Maccabsean struggle, disgusted with the high priests be- 
cause they were also political rulers, they banded or 
"associated" themselves together to observe the Law. 
Religious parties are seldom called, however, by names 
of their own choosing, and the people soon called them 
Pharisees. The chief characteristic of the Pharisees 
was their zeal for the observance of the Law. It was 
this zeal that led members of the party to enter upon 
the professions of copyists and teachers. By the time 
of Christ they had become the most influential party 
in Judaism. The "people of the land," as the Pharisees 
called the common people in derision, held the Pharisees 
in great respect, and were as submissive to Pharisaical 
rules and decisions as their circumstances permitted them 
to be. Although the Pharisees were conservative in 
practice, they sometimes adopted ideas foreign to the 
Old Testament Scriptures. For example, in most of the 
Old Testament books there is no faith expressed in a 
resurrection or in an immortal life. It is only in Dan. 
12 : 2-4 out of the whole Old Testament that such a 
faith finds expression. The Pharisees, nevertheless, ar- 
dently believed in a resurrection and made it one of their 
distinguishing beliefs. 

47 



48 Jesus of Nazareth 

In opposition to the Pharisees stood the Sadducees, a 
party or group consisting mainly of the priesthood and 
wealthy Jews who were worldly wise and who felt the 
disadvantage of insisting upon such a strict enforce- 
ment of the Jewish Law as to cut the nation off from all 
that was beneficial in the civilization of the world by 
which they were surrounded. The Sadducees were less 
numerous than the Pharisees, but were influential be- 
cause of their wealth and position. They were less en- 
thusiastically religious than the Pharisees, It is not 
certain what the name "Sadducees" means; possibly it 
means "righteous." If so, it was probably given them 
in derision. Liberal in their practices, the Sadducees 
were conservative in thought. Concerning a resurrec- 
tion, they held to the general teaching of the Old Testa- 
ment and denied the newer views embraced by the Phari- 
sees. Whether there was or was not to be a resurrec- 
tion was a doctrine hotly debated between the Pharisees 
and Sadducees (see Acts 23:6-10). 

While the Pharisees and Sadducees were parties rather 
than sects, the Essenes can be more properly called a 
sect. They appeared during the Maccabaean revolt, 
168-153 B.C., and were apparently an offshoot of the 
Pharisees. In some respects they were greater sticklers 
for the observance of the Law than the Pharisees them- 
selves; in other respects they modified Jewish practice 
through foreign influences. These influences have been 
thought by some to be Persian, though others think that 
their source is unknown. The Essenes were brother- 
hoods, who lived in monasteries and did not marry. 
They had all things in common and one had to pass 
through a long probation before he could be admitted 
to the order. The members shared a common meal and 
common possessions; they could hold no private prop- 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 49 

erty. They had priests outside the Levitical priesthood, 
but were very careful concerning all laws of unclean- 
ness. All their food was prepared by priests; they 
avoided everything that could defile, even going so far 
as to avoid a novice of their own order, and subjected 
themselves to countless ceremonial washings. They en- 
gaged in manual labor, such as farming and the work 
of artisans, but avoided trade. They spent much time in 
contemplating angels and Paradise and in cultivating 
apocalyptic knowledge. They laid great stress on speak- 
ing the truth, and would not take oaths. They were 
kind to the poor and distributed much in charity. It is 
said that in the time of Christ there were about four 
thousand of them in Palestine. They are not mentioned 
in the New Testament. 

Quite different from the Essenes were the Zealots or 
Cananasans. They took their name from a Hebrew 
word that means "to be jealous" or "to burn with zeal." 
It is the root used in the Old Testament when it is said 
that Jehovah is a "jealous God." "Zealot" is the Greek 
translation of it. The Cananseans were intense patriots. 
They burned with zeal for their country and their re- 
ligion. They were so deeply galled by the fact that 
Palestine was subject to the Romans that they held it 
to be a religious duty to use any and every means, how- 
ever violent or treacherous, to rid their land of the rule 
of the hated foreigner. From this volcanic group Jesus 
selected one of his Disciples, Simon the Canansean. 
Later they developed into a band of assassins. 

Another party (it cannot be called a sect), with which 
Jesus came into contact during the last days of his life, 
were the Herodians. They were a political rather than 
a religious party, consisting of the personal followers 
and friends of the dynasty of Herod. They did not, like 



50 Jesus of Nazareth 

the Cananaeans, seek to get rid of Roman rule alto- 
gether, but wished to unite the country once more under 
a king of the Herodian dynasty under Roman protec- 
tion. This party was not a large one, but its members 
may well have been rich and influential. 

In addition to these various parties, whose opinions 
and aspirations met, clashed, and seethed in the religious 
and political life of the time, there lived in the very 
midst of the land, in Samaria, the hated Samaritans al- 
ready described in chapter I. The Jews regarded the 
Samaritans as very wrong-headed and therefore very 
bad. The religious antagonism of centuries had pro- 
duced such deep feelings of aversion that "the Jews had 
no dealings with the Samaritans." Jews living in Gali- 
lee, when they had occasion to travel to Jerusalem, as 
many of them did at the time of the great feasts, would 
not go by the straight road, as that would take them 
through the heart of the Samaritan country, but made 
a circuit to the eastward and traveled down the Jordan 
valley to Jericho from which they climbed up the 
Judean mountains to the Holy City. 

Apart from the various parties into which the re- 
ligious life of Palestine was divided, or rather inter- 
penetrating them all in varying degrees, was the Mes- 
sianic hope, i.e., the belief that at some time God would 
send them a Messiah, or heavenly king, tO' deliver them 
from their oppressors and to establish on the earth the 
kingdom of God. Messiah means in Hebrew "The 
Anointed One" ; "Christ" is the Greek translation of it. 
In early times the term "Anointed" had been applied to 
kings because they only were then anointed. In the time 
of kings Saul and David, the king was frequently re- 
ferred to simply as "the Lord's Anointed" (see I Sam. 
16:6; 24:6, 10; 26:9-23; II Sam. 1 : 14, 16, 21; 19: 21). 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 51 

If we should transfer the Hebrew word instead of trans- 
lating it, the phrase would be "the Lord's Messiah." For 
three hundred years after this that was all the term 
meant; it was simply a way of referring to the reigning 
king. 

In the time of the prophet Isaiah (740-700 B.C.), 
when the existence of Judaea was threatened by Assyria 
and the kings seemed to be incompetent, Isaiah began 
to prophesy of a time when God would send a wonder- 
ful king to rule over his people and would establish on 
the earth his ideal kingdom. The most important of 
these predictions are found in Isa. 9:2-7 and 11:1-9. 
This was the beginning of that forward look toward a 
Messiah or extraordinary king, that was destined to 
exert such an influence on later Jewish and Christian 
thought. Centuries passed, however, and the king did 
not come. Many times the Jews thought he was at hand, 
but he failed to appear. They were conquered by Baby- 
lon, then subjected in turn to Persia, Macedon, Egypt, 
Syria, and Rome, and still the Messiah did not appear. 
They imbibed a good deal of Babylonian story, and es- 
pecially a story of how a god of light had had to over- 
come a great evil dragon in order that he might create 
the heavens and the earth, and they gradually took this 
as an allegory of the way the kingdom of God must be 
brought in. A dragon of evil was oppressing God's 
people and he must be slain before the kingdom of right- 
eousness and peace could be established. In some quar- 
ters it was believed that Jehovah himself would appear 
to slay the dragon; in others it was believed he would 
send his Messiah to do it. Under this influence the ex- 
pected Messiah was gradually transformed from an 
earthly king of superior power and goodness to a heav- 
enly being who had existed with God in heaven from 



52 Jesus of Nazareth 

before the creation of the world, waiting for the times 
to be ripe for his coming to earth. 

No doubt the Jews were helped to adopt these views 
by contact in Babylonia with Persian Zoroastrians who 
had developed somewhat similar expectations of the 
coming of a Saviour. These expectations of a super- 
natural Messiah and the introduction of the Kingdom of 
God by a supernatural upheaval found expression in a 
class of books called apocalypses or "revelations." Such 
books began to be written soon after 200 B.C. and were 
very popular in certain circles until after 100 A.D. The 
writers did not, like the prophets, dare to speak in their 
own names the messages of encouragement, instruction, 
correction, and inspiration that they felt impelled to im- 
part to their fellows. They knew that if they did, they 
would not gain a hearing. They accordingly adopted 
the literary expedient of putting what they had to say 
into the mouth of some well known person, who had 
lived long before and who was universally reverenced by 
Jews, and representing what they wished to say as some- 
thing that God had revealed in a vision to this ancient 
worthy. It thus happened that seven apocalypses were 
attributed to Enoch, who in Genesis 5 : 24 is said to 
have been taken to God without dying; one to each of 
Jacob's twelve sons, one to Moses, one to Isaiah, seven 
to Baruch (Jeremiah's scribe), one to Daniel, one to 
Shealtiel, and one or more to Ezra. However much 
these works might differ in detail, the same philosophy 
underlies them all. Their authors believed that the 
world is in the grip of an evil power, and that this power 
must be miraculously destroyed, either by the direct in- 
tervention of God himself or by the coming of a miracu- 
lous Messiah, before relief can be afforded and the people 
of God find peace and happiness. In course of time 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 53 

many of these apocalypses that were originally separate 
were combined into one work. Thus six of the works 
attributed to Enoch were made into one book; six of 
those attributed to Baruch, into another; those attributed 
to Ezra and Shealtiel, into a third. 

While leading Pharisees frowned upon this kind of 
literature and skeptical Sadducees naturally had no use 
for it, the common people, oppressed by heavy taxation, 
cherished it. It is thought by some that the Essenes 
were especially devoted to it. In any event, there must 
have been a considerable reading public for this type of 
work, or so many apocalypses would not have been writ- 
ten. The chests in which rolls were kept in many a vil- 
lage synagogue must have contained apocalypses among 
other books. This was probably true of the synagogue 
at Nazareth, where among others, we believe the Book 
of Enoch, made by fusing together six different apoca- 
lypses, was to be found. Pharisees and Sadducees might 
disapprove, but the common people eagerly read these 
visions, imbibed their underlying philosophy, drank in 
their hopes, and waited for the realization of the king- 
dom of blessedness which they portrayed. 

Into the manifold life of Judaism as here outlined, 
with its various religious opinions, its political and super- 
natural hopes, all of which were closely intertwined, and 
which met and clashed, not only with one another, but 
with the hard world of fact about them, Jesus, in the 
fulness of time, was born and lived. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DATES IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 

IF one takes up an ordinary biography, it is expected 
that it will give information as to the time when 
the most important events of the life described oc- 
curred. One expects to be told when the hero was born, 
when he died, and the date of any other important 
events. It is not otherwise with the life of Jesus. Great 
interest attaches to the dates of his birth, baptism, and 
death. 

Some will doubtless be surprised that the date of the 
birth of Jesus is open to discussion. We live in the 
year 1920, or 1922, or 1930, or some other year Anno 
Domini, i.e., "the year of our Lord," a phrase that really 
means "since our Lord was born." We naturally infer, 
therefore, that Jesus was born at the beginning of the 
year 1 A.D. This natural inference is, however, a mis- 
take. When Jesus was born no one recognized that his 
birth was so significant that events ought to be dated 
from it. In the different parts of the Roman empire at 
the time there were many local systems of counting the 
years. Two of these deserve special notice. 

In the year 312 B.C., Seleucus, one of the generals of 
Alexander the Great, founded a kingdom, the capital of 
which soon became Antioch on the Orontes. This king- 
dom is generally called the kingdom of Syria. The sub- 
jects of this realm reckoned time from the beginning 
of the reign of Seleucus in the year 312 B.C. This is 
called the "Seleucid era" and for many centuries was 

54 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 55 

employed all over Syria and Palestine. One still finds 
inscriptions and old manuscripts in Palestine dated in 
this era. 

Another way of dating events was to date them from 
the founding of the city of Rome. This was the era 
most generally employed in the great Roman empire. 
An event would be said to have happened in 710, or 750 
(or some other number) A.U.C, i.e., anno nrbis con- 
ditce, "the year of the founding of the city." These and 
other less widely used systems of dating continued to 
be employed for centuries. 

No one thought of dating events from the birth of 
Christ until nearly six hundred years after his time, 
when a Roman monk, Dionysius Exiguus, proposed it. 
Dionysius as best he could counted up how many years 
had elapsed between the birth of Christ and his own 
time, and his computation was widely circulated. Two 
hundred years more passed, however, before the idea of 
Dionysius was carried into effect. About 800 A.D. the 
emperor Charles the Great (Charlemagne) took up the 
system which Dionysius had worked out and put it into 
force, and it has since made its way in the East, so that 
now it is employed all over Christendom. Dionysius in 
making his computation somehow made an error of at 
least four years. Probably the error is greater than that. 
Consequently we still have to seek evidence as to the date 
of the year when Jesus was born. 

We are told that Jesus was born in the reign of Herod 
the Great ( Matt. 2:1). Herod died in March in the 
year 750 A.U.C. Now the year selected by Dionysius 
Exiguus as the first year of the Christian era was the 
year 754 A.U.C. ; Jesus was accordingly born at least 
four years before the year 1 of our era. It is, how- 
ever, implied in Matt. 2:16 that the birth of Jesus had 



56 Jesus of Nazareth 

taken place at least two years before Herod's death, and 
that it might have been earlier than that. We need not 
be surprised therefore to learn that it was as early as 
6 or 8 B.C. 

Again we are told in Luke 2 : i ff. that the birth of 
Jesus occurred in connection with a census taken by 
order of the Roman emperor Augustus. This census is 
further defined as the first census taken when Quirinius 
was governor of Syria. These statements, long ques- 
tioned by scholars, have in recent years received inter- 
esting illumination from documents found in Egypt. 
These documents were discovered at a spot where the 
inhabitants of an Egyptian city used to empty their 
waste-baskets, and consist of letters, receipts, accounts, 
the fragments of old books, and such things. They con- 
tain evidence that in the Roman empire a census was 
taken every fourteen years, and that they were estab- 
lished in all probability by the emperor Augustus. There 
was such a census in 20 A.D., a previous one in 6 A.D., 
and the one before that fell in the year 9 to 8 B.C. Per- 
haps this was the first one ever held, though Augustus 
may have inaugurated the series in the year 23-22 B.C. 
Evidence from outside the Bible seems to show that 
Quirinius was governor of Syria 10-8 B.C. and we know 
that he was also governor in 6 A.D. 1 The Gospel of 
Luke clearly indicates, therefore, that the birth of Jesus 
occurred in 8 B.C. We may accordingly fix upon this 
as the date we are seeking. 

The great astronomer, Kepler, made use of "the star 
in the east" mentioned in Matt 2 : 2 ff. as a help in de- 
termining the date of the birth of Jesus. Kepler ob- 
served in the years 1603 and 1604 what astronomers 

1 There is some evidence that conflicts with this. See G. A. Bar- 
ton, "Archaeology and the Bible," pp. 436, 437, 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 57 

call a "conjunction" of Jupiter and Saturn, i.e., the two 
planets were very near together in the sky at night. In 
1603 the conjunction occurred in the part of the heavens 
known as the constellation "Pisces," or "The Fishes"; 
in 1604 it was in the part of the heavens known as the 
constellation "Aries" or "The Ram." In March, 1604, 
Jupiter and Saturn were joined by the planet Mars, and 
in October of the same year all three planets were near 
a very brilliant fixed star. It occurred to Kepler that 
something like this may have been at the basis of the 
narrative of the ''star in the east," and, reckoning back, 
he found that a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, with 
the later addition of Mars, occurred repeatedly in Pisces 
in the years 747 and 748 A.U.C., i.e., in the years 7 and 
6 B.C. Kepler thought that probably some bright star 
may have shone with them also. During the nineteenth 
century the calculations of Kepler were examined and 
confirmed by at least four other astronomers. 

For five or six hundred years before the birth of 
Christ the peoples of western Asia who had come under 
the influence of the Babylonians had attached great sig- 
nificance to the movements of the planets and to their 
conjunction. They believed that omens could be derived 
from them. Men who were counted wise devoted them- 
selves to the study of the stars and predicted from the 
movements of the planets and their nearness to one an- 
other what would happen. The mass of people sincerely 
believed that these predictions were true. Even if, as 
many modern scholars think, the story of the visit of the 
"wise men from the east" to the infant Christ is a legend 
that grew up after his death as a testimony to what 
people then believed him to be, it is probable that it had 
some basis in a wonderful appearance of stars or planets 
in the sky near the time of his birth. Even if one may 



58 Jesus of Nazareth 

not attach much weight to the facts here presented, such 
weight as they have confirms the date of his birth as 
having been about 8 B.C. True, the conjunctions re- 
ferred to did not begin until 7 B.C., but, as devout Chris- 
tians looked back forty years or more, they would easily 
disregard the difference of a year. 

Another date which we should like to know is the year 
that Jesus' ministry began. We may safely infer that 
it began a few months only after John the Baptist began 
to preach and to baptize. From Luke 3 : 1 we learn that 
John began to* preach in the fifteenth year of the reign 
of the Roman emperor Tiberius. Augustus died and 
Tiberius succeeded him in the year 14 A.D. It would 
therefore seem at first sight that the fifteenth year of 
Tiberius would be the year 28 A.D. The matter is not, 
however, so simple, for Augustus associated Tiberius 
with him in the government at some time before his 
death. This cannot have been later than 13 A.D., and the 
great historian Mommsen, thought it was as early as 11 
A.D. If it was in 11 A.D., the fifteenth year of Tiberius 
would be the year 25 ; if in 13 A.D., it would be 27 A.D. 
An Egyptian papyrus shows that in Egypt the reign of 
Tiberius was believed to have begun in 14 A.D., and it 
is probable that St. Luke intended by his statement to 
refer to the year 28 A.D. In what follows it will be 
assumed that John began his ministry early in the year 
28 and that Jesus was baptized in the autumn of that 
year. 

Another problem that confronts us is: How long did 
the ministry of Jesus continue? It has been noted in a 
previous chapter that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke would make the length of the ministry some- 
thing more than a year, while the Gospel of John makes 
it more than two years, if not more than three. It will 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 59 

be remembered that the years are marked in the Gospels 
by the number of Passovers that Jesus and the Disciples 
attended, or the number of Passover seasons that can be 
traced. The first three Gospels imply two such seasons 
(see Mark 2: 23 and 14: 1), making one year; the Gos- 
pel of John implies that there were three of them (John 
2:23, 6:4, and 11 :55 ft.), making two years, and, if 
the feast mentioned in John 5 : 1 were a Passover, there 
would be four of them, making three years. Which shall 
we follow? We ought to follow Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke, partly because they are the older sources, and 
partly because we can see how the Gospel of John came 
to differ from them. There is no real reason for believ- 
ing that the feast mentioned in John 5 : 1 was a Pass- 
over. There is reason to believe that the Passover men- 
tioned in John 2 : 2^ was really identical with that men- 
tioned in John 11 : 55. The reason is this : in connection 
with that Passover Jesus drove the Jewish traders out 
of the Temple (see John 2 : 14 ft.), but according to Mat- 
thew, Mark, and Luke, this event occurred in connection 
with the Passover at which Jesus was crucified (see 
Matt. 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-19, Luke 19:45-48). It 
has been assumed in many books that Christ drove the 
traders from the Temple twice, but is this probable? 
Such an act would be a challenge to the Jewish rulers 
that they would not have been slow to take up. Had he 
given them this challenge at the beginning of his min- 
istry, it is difficult to see why they did not exercise their 
power to have him punished at once. Had he performed 
this act at the beginning of his ministry, it seems prob- 
able that his life would have been even shorter than it 
was. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke represent Jesus as begin- 
ning his ministry somewhat unobtrusively. He did not 



60 Jesus of Nazareth 

proclaim his Messiahship at once, but first sought to in- 
stil into men's minds something of his own thoughts and 
spirit; then he revealed his Messianic claim first to his 
disciples; and lastly he let it be known openly and came 
into conflict with the authorities at Jerusalem. This, as 
will be shown more fully later, is the method that a 
good teacher, who understands the capabilities and limi- 
tations of the minds of his pupils, would adopt. It 
doubtless represents the historical fact. As has been 
noted in an earlier chapter, the Gospel of John was 
written by one who had lost this historical perspective. 
He saw the divine in Jesus so clearly that he believed 
that he was above the need of ordinary principles of 
tactful teaching. He thought that Jesus publicly pro- 
claimed his Messiahship at the beginning of his ministry, 
provoked the opposition of the Jewish rulers at once, 
and was in open debate with them about it through the 
whole course of his ministry. We seem justified, there- 
fore, in supposing that it was this loss of historical per- 
spective that led the author of the Gospel of John to 
remove the account of the driving of the traders from 
the Temple from the end of the ministry to its begin- 
ning. That he did so we have the warrant of the opin- 
ion of a very early Christian writer for believing. 
Tatian, who about 150-160 A.D. wove words of the 
four Gospels into one continuous story of the life of 
Christ, identifies the Passover referred to in the second 
chapter of John with that at which Jesus was crucified, 
described in John 1 1 : 55 ff. 

If now we follow Tatian' s example, there are really 
but two Passovers mentioned in the Gospel of John — 
that of John 6 : 4, which must have occurred near the 
time the grain was ripe, as mentioned in Mark 2 : 23, 
and the Passover at which Jesus was crucified. John 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 61 

would then support the other Gospels. We conclude, 
then, that the ministry of Jesus embraced but two Pass- 
overs. In other words, it was less than two years in 
length. If, as has been assumed on the authority of the 
first three Gospels the ministry of Jesus lasted but a 
year and a fraction of a year, the fact heightens in our 
minds admiration for his person and power. It was 
sufficiently wonderful to us that in a ministry of three 
years he should have so impressed his mind and thoughts 
on men as to have influenced the world more than any 
man has done, but to have done in a year far more than 
others, who lived much longer than he, did in a lifetime, 
places his uniqueness in new perspective and gives new 
emphasis to the words: "Never man spake like this 
man." If John began to preach during the summer of 
the year 28 (i.e., after the Passover of that year), Jesus 
probably stopped by the Jordan to hear him preach 
when he, Jesus, was traveling to or from the Feast of 
Tabernacles, which occurred in October of that year. 
Jesus was then baptized. His temptation followed, and 
then his ministry began. If this computation is correct, 
the two Passovers that were included in the ministry of 
Jesus were the Passovers of the years 29 and 30 A.D. 

It may be objected to these dates that Luke says that 
Jesus, when he began to teach, was about thirty years of 
age (Luke 3:23), whereas our reckoning would make 
him about thirty-five. It should be noted, however, that 
"about" is not a definite word ; it is quite consistent with 
a considerable margin above thirty. 

If the calculations made in the preceding pages are 
correct, Jesus was crucified in the year 30 A.D. A good 
deal of effort has been made to determine the year of the 
Crucifixion from astronomy. It has been done in this 
way. The Jewish Passover was celebrated on the fif- 



62 Jesus of Nazareth 

teenth of the first month of the Jewish year, Nisatl, 
(which would include parts of March and April). The 
Jewish months were 'lunar" months, i.e., they began 
with every new moon and lasted until the moon changed 
again. The 15th of Nisan would be at the time the 
moon was full in the month Nisan. The Jews began 
their day at sundown of the preceding day, i.e., they 
reckoned each night as a part of the day following it. 
If, for example, the 15th of Nisan fell on a Friday, they 
counted it as beginning with sunset of Thursday and 
lasting until sunset of Friday. If, then, Jesus' last 
supper with his disciples was a Passover, he ate it on 
what we should call Thursday evening and was crucified 
on Passover-day, which that year fell on Friday. If, 
then, we can find when Passover fell on Friday during 
the years from 27 to 34 A.D., we may be able to test our 
theory of the date of the death of Jesus by astronomy. 

The astronomical calculations are not difficult to 
make, but the problem is not so simple as it seems for 
two reasons. The first of these is that the Jews did 
not begin their new month until they had seen the new 
moon, and if it were cloudy when the moon changed 
their month might begin a day late. They had made a 
rule that no month should have more than thirty days, 
so that the beginning of the month should not be too 
long delayed by cloudy weather, but there is some un- 
certainty, nevertheless, as to when any specific month 
began. They did not keep weather reports, so we do 
not know whether in the year of Christ's crucifixion it 
was or was not cloudy at Jerusalem at the beginning of 
the month Nisan. The second uncertainty arises from 
the fact mentioned in a previous chapter that, accord- 
ing to the Gospel of John, Jesus' last supper with his 
disciples occurred on the day before the Passover. If 



Things To Be Known Beforehand 63 

this be the historical fact, the Passover the year he was 
crucified fell on Saturday instead of Friday. 

It is owing to these uncertainties that astronomy can- 
not on this matter give us an absolutely fixed date. 
Those with the requisite knowledge who have made the 
computations tell us that Jesus was probably crucified in 
29, 30, or 33 A.D. As 30 A.D. is the year we had 
reached from other data, we conclude that in all proba- 
bility that is the correct date. 

It must ever be borne in mind that no one of the 
dates mentioned is absolutely certain. In a part of the 
evidence for every one of them there is an undetermined 
factor. In the present state of our knowledge, however, 
they are more probably right than any other dates, and 
we may tentatively take them as a working theory. Sum- 
marizing them, they are as follows : 

Birth of Jesus 8 B.C. 

John the Baptist began to preach .... 28 A.D. 

Jesus baptized 28 A.D. 

First Passover in his ministry 29 A.D. 

Second Passover and Crucifixion ... 30 A.D. 



BOOK II 
THE LIFE OF JESUS BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 

Chapters X-XVI 



CHAPTER X 

THE BIRTH OF JESUS 

(Matt, i and 2; Luke 1:5-2: 40.) 

THE Gospels of Matthew and Luke agree that 
Jesus was born at Bethlehem in Judaea, the 
birthplace of Israel's great king David. It is 
five miles south of Jerusalem, and lies near the crest of 
a ridge that has an easterly and southeasterly slope. As 
one stands at Bethlehem he looks on the east down over 
fertile fields toward the great chasm in which the Dead 
Sea lies. Beyond are the blue mountains of Moab. The 
Dead Sea itself is hidden from view by the edges of the 
chasm in which it lies. To the southeast one looks of! 
over the hills of Judaea. A conical mountain, three miles 
from Bethlehem, arrests the eye. When Christ was born 
this was crowned by a palace of Herod the Great, the 
ruins of which are still there. 

The Gospels agree that Mary the Mother of Jesus 
and her husband Joseph were descendants of David, 
though, as was pointed out in an earlier chapter, they 
trace his descent through different genealogies. Both 
Matthew and Luke, as their text now is, tell us that not 
Joseph, but the Holy Spirit, was the Father of Jesus. 
The great majority of Christian people hold these state- 
ments to be literally true and believe that only thus can 
the possession by Jesus of that unique nature, which was 
in after life undoubtedly his, be explained. 

A small, but possibly an increasing number of Chris- 

67 



63 Jesus of Nazareth 

tians, think that Joseph was the earthly father of Jesus 
and that the narratives in the Gospels which state the op- 
posite are not, when understood, inconsistent with this 
view. They recall that in the Orient monarchs, even in 
their own lifetime, were sometimes said not to have had 
earthly fathers; that remarkable persons, such as Hera- 
cles and Pythagoras, were said to be sons of a god; 
that great religious reformers, such as the Buddha and 
Vardhamana in India, were said to have had no earthly 
fathers; that Philo, a Jew of Alexandria, regards Isaac, 
Samuel, and others as begotten of divine seed, though 
they had human fathers; and that an early text of the 
Gospel of Matthew says that Joseph begat Jesus; that 
St. Paul says in one place that Jesus was "of the seed 
of David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3); that in 
another (Gal. 4:4) he says that Jesus was "born of a 
woman, born normally" (for so some would render the 
words "under the law") ; and that the Gospel of John 
speaks of him as "Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph" 
(John 1 : 45). They therefore urge that we have in the 
accounts of the birth of Jesus comparatively early 
tributes to the divine nature, of which Jesus was believed 
to be possessed, rather than strictly historical state- 
ments. Naturally this view does not appeal to many, and 
to many it seems irreverent, not to say blasphemous. 

It should be borne in mind, whatever view a student 
takes as to this matter, that the evidence for the faith 
of Christians in the divine sonship of Jesus does not 
stand orc^fall with these early chapters of Matthew and 
Luke. If it could be demonstrated to us that it pleased 
God to make the body of Jesus as he makes other human 
bodies, it would leave untouched the great fact of what 
Jesus was, for the best evidence of what he was is found 
in what he thought of himself. What he thought of 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 69 

himself and how he came to think this, will be set forth 
in a future chapter. His consciousness of what he was 
is the impregnable rock of Christian faith. Xext to that 
comes the estimation in which he was held by those who 
walked, talked, and ate with him. 

According to the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Man- 
were living in Xazareth in Galilee when, about 8 B.C., 
the time for the census instituted by the Emperor Augus- 
tus drew near. In accordance with the custom which 
prevailed in the East, these sojourners in Galilee jour- 
neyed to Bethlehem, the home of their ancestors, that 
they might there be enumerated with their kinsfolk. One 
likes to picture this journey. It is pleasant to think of 
the Galilaean carpenter, in his long flowing garments, 
leading his donkey as he walks beside that on which rides 
his wife, or as he rides a little back of her on his own 
beast. One may still see peasants passing over the 
Judaean hills toward Bethlehem in a way that vividly 
recalls this journey of Biblical story. They reach the 
city ; they go to the khan, which in Oriental towns takes 
the place of a hotel with us, but they have arrived late; 
they had been unable to travel rapidly; the descendants of 
David are numerous; from many towns they have 
flocked to Bethlehem for the census ; and the khan is full. 
Such hospitality as the dwellers of Bethlehem could offer 
in their homes is also taxed to its utmost, and this humble 
family at last take lodgings in a stable. 

To-day travelers are shown a grotto or cave under 
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem which, it is 
claimed, was this historic stable. It is not at all im- 
possible that it is the actual shelter which protected the 
Holy Family on that memorable night. The limestone 
rocks of Palestine are honey-combed with caves and 
to-day, as in all periods of Palestinian history, the peas- 



yo Jesus of Nazareth 

ants use them, not only as shelters for their domestic 
animals, but sometimes as dwellings. Here was born the 
Child, that was destined to bring salvation to man- 
kind. It is no wonder that within two or three genera- 
tions of this time those who had come to appreciate the 
significance of his birth for the world believed that it 
had been heralded by an angelic choir, and that astrolo- 
gers from the East had sought out this child of destiny 
to do him honor. 

When eight days old the child was circumcised. The 
ceremony had for the Jews something of the signifi- 
cance of baptism with Christians. At the time of cir- 
cumcision boys received their names, and Joseph and 
Mary called this child Joshua (or Jeshua), the Greek 
form of which is Jesus. The name Joshua comes from a 
Hebrew root which means "to save" and means "one 
who saves." The author of the Gospel according to 
Matthew believed that the name was conferred by di- 
vine direction given to Joseph in a dream before Jesus 
was born. In any event, the name appropriately ex- 
presses what Jesus has done for myriads of people. 

Among the Jews the coming of a child into the world 
was such a wonderful event that a sacrifice was offered 
afterward at the Temple in behalf of the mother. All 
first-born sons, according to the Jewish law, belonged to 
God and had to be "redeemed" or bought back from 
God. The redemption-price was five shekels, and, ac- 
cording to< rabbinic tradition, could not be paid until at 
least thirty-one days after the birth of the child. The 
sacrifice for the mother could not be made, so the rabbis 
ruled, until at least forty-one days from the birth day. 
It was not necessary that the mother and child should go 
to the Temple for either one of these. The father could 
pay the redemption-money to any priest, and the sacri- 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry yi 

fice for the mother could be offered by the father or by 
kinsfolk at some convenient time when they were at the 
Temple. 

According to the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Mary 
took Jesus to the Temple and accomplished these two 
objects at the same time. It seems a natural inference 
that they had remained in Bethlehem for more than forty 
days. It is implied that they stopped in Jerusalem for 
the purpose when on their way from Bethlehem to their 
home in Xazareth. If a family could afford it, the sac- 
rifices offered on such occasions consisted of a lamb and 
two doves or pigeons. If the people were poor, the lamb 
might be omitted. Joseph and Mary were poor, so they 
offered the pigeons only. Early tradition, as embodied 
in the Gospel of Luke, treasured, as an omen of the fu- 
ture mission of Jesus, words that a holy man named 
Simeon and a devout prophetess, Anna, are said to have 
spoken concerning him when, on this occasion, they met 
the Holy Family in the Temple. The words attributed 
to Simeon are given in the Gospel in poetic form, and 
are to this day often sung in churches. According to 
Luke, the Holy Family returned to Xazareth after the 
presentation in the Temple and lived the simple life of 
devout Jewish peasants. 

It is at this point in the life of Jesus that the Gospel 
of Matthew introduces the story of the coming of the 
wise men from the East, which is said to have been fol- 
lowed by the slaughter by Herod of all children in Beth- 
lehem under two years of age. Joseph is said to have 
been warned in a dream beforehand of this approaching 
massacre and to have fled with Mary and the child Jesus 
to Egypt. Such a slaughter of the children of Beth- 
lehem, though quite in keeping with the character of 
Herod, who on his deathbed ordered the prominent men 



J2 Jesus of Nazareth 

of his kingdom to be slain at his death, in order that 
there might be mourning when he died, is not mentioned 
elsewhere, and the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt is 
inconsistent with the narrative of the Gospel of Luke. 
We are, accordingly, left in doubt as to the value of 
these traditions. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE EARLY CHILDHOOD OF JESUS 

NAZARETH, where the childhood of Jesus was 
passed, nestles among the Galilean hills in a 
little valley just to the north of the great Plain 
of Esdrselon. 1 Low hills on the south of the village 
shut out the view of the Plain, but from the high hills 
to the north of it a beautiful view, not only of the 
Plain, but of a wide extent of country may be seen. 
Here were passed the years between the birth of Jesus 
and his ministry on which the Gospels lift the veil but 
once. 

When Jesus was a boy, Nazareth was apparently not 
the prosperous village that it is now. At present various 
religious orders maintain establishments there and pil- 
grims from many lands visit Nazareth, each bringing it 
some slight business. It thus happens that to the mod- 
ern visitor Nazareth presents a more prosperous appear- 
ance than most of the neighboring villages. All this is, 
however, owing to the veneration in which Christians 
hold the place because it was once the home of Jesus. 
When he was a boy, it was probably poorer and less 
prosperous than many of the surrounding hamlets. It 
was so despised that men said of it : "Can any good thing 
come out of Nazareth ?" 

A vital part of every Palestinian village is the spring 
— the source of its water-supply. In some cases the 

i See Ch. I, p. 9. 

73 



74 Jesus of Nazareth 

spring is outside the village and at some distance from 
it; at Nazareth the spring is in the village itself at its 
eastern end. From time immemorial women have gone 
to the spring daily and carried home in large jars on 
their heads the water needed for household use. When 
the spring is in the village the women are fortunate. 
The land about the spring at Nazareth is the one spot 
which it is almost certain that the feet of Mary and of 
Jesus once trod. Mary must often have gone thither for 
water and Jesus no doubt accompanied her and played 
about the fountain with others as the visitor to Nazareth 
to-day still sees children doing. Over the spring itself 
a church was built about the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, so that now the water is conducted for some dis- 
tance through the church to a little stone reservoir out- 
side. To this reservoir the modern housekeepers of the 
village come as Mary used to come to the spring itself. 
Naturally we should like to know the kind of house 
in which the family of Joseph, the carpenter, lived. It 
has, of course, perished long ago, but from the houses of 
peasants found in the various excavations made in Pales- 
tine we are able to form some idea of it. In the hill 
country of Judaea and Galilee the houses were built of 
stone; in the lowlands, of mud bricks. Probably the 
houses in Nazareth were of stone. The houses of the 
poor had but one room, and it is doubtful if that of 
the carpenter of Nazareth contained more. Roofs were 
made of stone for the better houses, supported by stone 
arches, but on the houses of the poor they were formed 
by laying sticks or brushwood across and covering these 
with a layer of earth a foot or two in thickness. The 
earth was hardened by being wet with water and, while 
moist, pounded or rolled with a stone. Some of the 
larger and finer houses with stone roofs possessed a 



The Life of Jesus Befc re His Minis: 75 

smaller room built upon the flat roof. In summer, when 
the weather was hot, this upper room was used as a 
sleeping apartment. The poor, who could not afford 
such luxury, often, if the width of the street on which 
they lived permitted, built in summer a lattice-work 
room in front of the house in which :: sleep and covered 
it with boughs, 

The furniture of the houses was of the simplest sort 
— a few earthenware dishes and water-jars, a few stone 
dishes, a mill for grinding cereals, an oven, some rugs 
or mats which served as beds, a lampstand. and a low 
stool or large flat s::::e which served as a table. Such, 
doubtless, was the furniture in the home at Nazareth to 
which our thoughts are now directed. The domestic ac- 
tivities of this home deeply impressed the youthful Jesus 
and later formed the core of some of his :::: ; : effective 
sayings and parables. 

Take the mills : they were of two kinds. One con- 
sisted of a saddle-shaped hard stone on which the grain 
was spread, and another was rolled over it t: crush it; 
the other, of a flat stone hollowed out in the center, into 
which fitted a smaller conical stone, that could be turned 
half way around by : ; sting the wrist. To grind grain 
in either mill required two persons, one to feed it with 
grain and the other to do the crushing. 1 This w : rk : s 
done by women. Jesus had often watched them. 0::e 
wonders whether as a boy he ever helped his mother or 
whether she had to secure the help of a neighbor to do 
the grinding until her own daughters were old enough 
to help her. It was this process that led Jesus t: say: 
"Two women shall be grinding at the mill : one is taken, 
and one is left." I Matt __:_:. See Luke 17 : 55. 1 

Z::~e/" 7 Zi Yl~ S: }':: i ':-' " 



y6 Jesus of Nazareth 

Another important article of furniture was the oven. 
It consisted of a cylinder of baked earth about two feet 
in diameter and two feet high, closed at the top with a 
cover of the same material in which a stone or lump of 
clay had been embedded as a handle. It usually had 
no bottom except the bare earth. A fire was built inside 
to heat it, and then the bread, which consisted of flat 
discs, was put inside, either on clean pebbles or on a 
baking tray. Sometimes the bread was baked by smear- 
ing the dough over the outside of the heated oven and 
then peeling it off as bread when it had been cooked. 
The fuel might consist of dry fagots, dry grass, or even 
dry manure. In the humble home at Nazareth they 
often had to burn grass. Allusion to this is made in 
Jesus' reference to "the grass of the field which to-day 
is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven" (Matt. 6:30; 
Luke 12: 28). 

Before heating the oven — hours before — Mary "hid 
leaven in three measures of meal" to raise bread for a 
large baking for her hungry boys and girls (see Matt. 
I 3 : 33)- Jesus watched it rise; saw the bubbles form 
on top; saw the leaven work "until the whole was leav- 
ened." His boyish memory stored away this lore of 
bread-making to bring it out later in a parable. 

The little boy was hungry. He asked his mother or 
Joseph for bread, and they did not give him a stone; 
he asked sometimes for an egg, and they did not offer 
him a scorpion; sometimes he asked for fish (perhaps 
fish sellers came up from the Jordan or the Sea of Gali- 
lee to Nazareth), and they did not offer him a snake to 
eat (see Matt. 7:9, 10; Luke 11: n, 12). 

When mealtime came the low flat table was placed 
in the middle of the room and the family squatted 
around it as the natives still do in Palestine. If there 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry yy 

was cooked food, the dish containing it was placed on 
the table and all ate from it, each helping himself (see 
Matt. 26 : 23 ; Mark 14 : 20) . 

As night came on the little flat clay lamp, filled with 
olive oil, was brought out, lighted, and put on the lamp- 
stand (see Matt. 5:15). It sent forth a dim, flickering, 
feeble light, but the house was small and was all in one 
room, and it "gave light to all who were in the house." 
Later the table and oven were put aside and the mats or 
rugs which served as beds were brought out and unrolled 
on the floor. Skins were spread over these and the 
family lay down to sleep, covered by the heavier gar- 
ments they had worn during the day. When this was 
done the door was shut for the night and no one could 
be admitted. The boy Jesus, when a man, remembered 
that one night a neighbor of theirs had come to borrow 
bread. A guest from a distance, a friend of the neigh- 
bor, had unexpectedly arrived late, and the neighbor's 
children had eaten all the bread, so that there was noth- 
ing to set before the guest. It was inconvenient for 
Joseph to get up, unfasten the door, find the bread, and 
give it to him, but, like a kindly neighbor, he did not 
refuse. The carpenter's family fortunately had the 
bread on hand (see Luke 11 : 5-8). 

These and many other things about the household im- 
pressed the keen-minded boy. He watched his mother as 
she patched the children's clothing and noted that old 
garments should be patched with old cloth. Perhaps 
Mary once used, when mending, some new, unfulled 
cloth, and, when it shrunk, it enlarged the original rent 
in the garment. He watched Joseph as he put grape 
juice into wine-skins to ferment, and learned that it was 
necessary to use a new strong wine-skin. Perhaps once 
Joseph had only an old one and the strain of fermenta- 



78 Jesus of Nazareth 

tion burst it and the wine was lost (see Matt. 9: 16, 17; 
Mark 2 : 21, 22). 

The metal lamp-stand and other implements made of 
metal which the humble home possessed, even though 
they were heirlooms and were regarded as treasures, 
might in time become corroded with rust and be use- 
less. Mary, like other women, apparently possessed 
some fabrics, perhaps inherited from her mother, which 
were highly prized and sacredly guarded. These the 
moths ate. Such circumstances were noted by the youth- 
ful Christ (see Matt. 6: 19, 20; Luke 12: 33). 

On the Sabbath Joseph loosed the tether of the family 
donkey and led him away to water. A neighbor's ox or 
ass fell into a pit, and he and his neighbors did not 
hesitate to pull him out on the Sabbath. The boy, when 
large enough to run, watched the Nazarene shepherds 
bringing their flocks into the village, counting their 
sheep, separating the sheep and goats and shutting the 
fold for the night. Nothing escaped his eagle eye, and 
these common things later were made vehicles for the 
expression of spiritual truth. 



CHAPTER XII 

JESUS AT PLAY AND AT SCHOOL 

AS Jesus grew he doubtless mingled with the chil- 
dren and joined in their games. What some of 
these games were we may infer from his refer- 
ence to "children sitting in the markets (i.e., open spaces 
of a town), and calling unto their fellows and saying, 
'We have piped unto you and ye have not danced; we 
have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented' '' 
(Matt. 11:17). He thus tells us that children played 
at dancing sometimes. One or more pretended to play 
the music, while others danced. Dancing was character- 
istic of occasions of joy, such as weddings. Perhaps 
the children played at holding weddings. Mourning and 
wailing were characteristic of funerals. Children then as 
now played at what they saw older people do. Jesus, 
with his surpassing insight, did, no doubt, when a man, 
often watch children at their play with an understand- 
ing and sympathy which grown people do not as a rule 
possess, but it is not too much to suppose that as a boy 
in Nazareth he had joined with other children in similar 
games. It brings him nearer to us to think of his bright 
eager face and manly form moving with pure childish 
grace and gentle spirit in and out among the poor chil- 
dren of Nazareth, enjoying to the full their play, tak- 
ing a "child's pure delight" in all the little pleasures that 
play afforded, bearing with those who were selfish or 
sulky and would spoil the play, and infusing into it all a 
cheer and comradery that helped each child to be his or 

79 



80 Jesus of Nazareth 

her best. The Gospel tells us that he was "subject to 
his parents." He was a dutiful boy. His after life 
shows that he was always pure, but he was evidently one 
who entered with zest into all that life in Nazareth had 
to offer to a child. 

In these games the brothers and sisters of Jesus no 
doubt joined. It startles us, perhaps, to think of Jesus 
as having brothers and sisters, but the Gospels tell us 
that he had (see Mark 6:3) and they also tell us the 
names of four brothers. They were James (or really 
Jacob), Joses (really Joseph), Simon, and Judas (really 
Judah). The names of the sisters are not mentioned. 
Many Christians from early times have hesitated to be- 
lieve that these brothers and sisters of Jesus were chil- 
dren of Mary. They have felt that it was unfitting that 
one who had been the mother of the Son of God ever 
had a child of earthly paternity. There are, accordingly, 
three theories with reference to the matter: (1) that 
the ' 'brethren of the Lord" were really his cousins, be- 
ing children of Mary the wife of Cleopas, whom those 
who hold this theory believe to have been a sister of 
the Virgin Mary. This theory is disproved by the fact 
that no family would name a second child Mary while 
the first was living. (2) Others believe the "brethren 
of the Lord" were children of Joseph by a former mar- 
riage. This is possible, but, to the writer seems im- 
probable, since the brothers of Jesus appear to have 
been younger than he. (3) Still others believe that the 
natural meaning of the words of the Gospels is the true 
one and that these brothers and sisters were children 
of Joseph and Mary and were younger than Jesus. 
Whether one accepts the second or the third of these 
theories of the relationship of these children to Jesus, it 
is certain that they were brought up under the same roof 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 81 

with him, so that they must often have been the com- 
panions of Jesus in his childhood's play, and shared in 
the childish laughter that sounded in those days through 
the streets of Nazareth. 

Joseph was a carpenter, and, as a boy, Jesus must 
often have played about the carpenter's shop. We must 
not, however, picture to ourselves anything like the com- 
fortable elaborate shop of an American carpenter. The 
shop of Joseph was in all probability even simpler than 
those one still sees in Palestine. These are only shel- 
tered niches open on one side to the weather, when the 
carpenter is at work. Sometimes there is a sort of 
bench beside which the carpenter stands; sometimes the 
carpenter squats with his work on the ground. Among 
the carpenter's tools which have been found among the 
ruins of ancient Palestinian cities are axes, adzes, knives, 
saws, chisels, awls which, when heated, were used for 
making holes through wood, files, hammers, and nails. 
In the time of Christ well-to-do carpenters had tools 
made of iron, but poor carpenters often used stone ham- 
mers, and flint knives, chisels, and saws, as had been 
done in that country for centuries before the use of iron 
was discovered. When we recall what keen interest 
children take in all work with tools, how they follow 
eagerly each process, and what pleasure they derive from 
using chips, blocks, and shavings as playthings, we may 
be sure that however humble the carpenter's shop of 
Joseph, it afforded inexhaustible delight to the child 
Jesus and his playmates. 

If the education of Jesus proceeded in the way pre- 
scribed by the Jewish leaders, his parents taught him to 
say the Shema, or Jewish declaration of faith (Deut. 
6:4ff.) when he was very young — perhaps before he 
could read. He was then taught the letters of the 



82 Jesus of Nazareth 

Hebrew alphabet and began to read easy parts of the 
Old Testament in Hebrew. Even before he began this 
formal education he had drunk in much of the spirit 
of Judaism, for it was the very atmosphere of every 
Jewish home. For example, on Friday morning con- 
scientious Jews rose early in order to make prepara- 
tion for the Sabbath, which began at sundown on that 
day. The Sabbath was a day of festivity, but no work 
could be done on it. It was regarded as wrong to light 
a fire on the Sabbath, to light or extinguish a lamp. All 
preparations for the family feasting had to be done be- 
forehand, preparations made for keeping the food 
warm, and the lamps trimmed and filled for Sabbath 
use. Joseph and Mary would rise early, go to the mar- 
ket-place and purchase any supplies needed, Mary would 
bring water from the spring, and then spend the day 
busily cooking for the joyous Sabbath. Even as a child 
creeping about the floor Jesus would be impressed by 
these activities and the odors of the food. Certain 
dishes were prepared especially for the Sabbath. One 
of these was a kind of pie, consisting of a layer of meat 
between two crusts of dough, in memory of the manna 
eaten in the wilderness. Two loaves 'Of bread in token 
of the pots of manna were also< to be placed on the table. 

Before evening the toilets of the whole family had 
to be made, their nails cut, if need be, and their hair 
dressed, as all such doings were classed by the Rabbis as 
work and could not be performed on the day of rest. 
Toward evening the table was spread and covered with 
a white cloth, also in memory of the manna; the Sab- 
bath lamp, without which the first meal could not be 
eaten, was lighted, and all made ready. 

After dusk, when the Sabbath had really begun, the 
family went to the synagogue for the first service of the 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 83 

Sabbath. At the conclusion of the service, they hurried 
home, greeting any whom they met with: "Good Sab- 
bath !" On entering the home, a prayer was recited, and 
the evening meal eaten. This was as sumptuous as the 
circumstances of the family would permit. Perhaps in 
the home of the carpenter of Nazareth it was always 
frugal. In later times every Jewish family had, as a 
rule, a stranger as a guest at the Sabbath meal. Whether 
many strangers visited Nazareth and whether the car- 
penter's family often entertained them we have no means 
of knowing. 

On the morning of the Sabbath Jews often slept later 
than on other mornings. Upon rising and repeating the 
usual morning prayers, they went again to the syna- 
gogue for the second Sabbath service. At this service 
the sacred books were brought out and the lessons for 
the day read from the Law and the Prophets. Upon 
the conclusion of this service the family returned home 
to the second meal of the Sabbath, at which they ate 
the dish prepared the day before and kept warm all 
night by artificial means. This dish was called shallet. 
At this meal sacred songs were often sung. During the 
afternoon there was a service of evening prayer. The 
hour of its beginning varied in different localities. 
Sometimes it began as early as half -past twelve, at others 
as late as half-past three. After the evening prayer the 
third meal of the day, which was much lighter than the 
other two, was served. 

When one reared in a godly household, especially in a 
country household, recalls the vivid impression made 
upon him by the Sundays of his childhood with their 
bright impressive experiences, which, though but dimly 
understood, marked that day off from the rest of the 
week as a day of golden memory and mystic meaning, it 



84 Jesus of Nazareth 

is not difficult to imagine how the Sabbaths celebrated in 
Nazareth impressed and moulded the sensitive spirit of 
this unusual child. 

There is some reason to think that the education of 
Jesus proceeded up to his twelfth year according to the 
usual rabbinical program for the education of children. 
If so, he was at least by the time he was five taught the 
great Jewish confession of faith (Deut. 6:4 ft.) already 
mentioned. This was followed during the next five 
years by study of what were regarded as the most im- 
portant parts of the Pentateuch. 1 Certain Psalms were 
also learned. These were those commonly sung at the 
time of the great festivals, especially the Hallel-F salms 
or Psalms of praise: Psalms 11 3- 118. It is evident 
from the way in which Jesus in after life alluded to the 
Law that the study of the Pentateuch made a deep im- 
pression upon him. Its great principles were his heav- 
enly Father's laws; in its commands he heard the voice 
of his Father. He loved them; he thought about them; 
he followed out in his boyish way their instructions. If 
we could have the report of his teacher, we should prob- 
ably be told that he was the best pupil in the synagogue 
school. 

If the Khazzan of the synagogue who taught him was, 
however, a narrow-minded old Pharisee, we may well 
imagine that he was often puzzled and perplexed by the 
searching questions of his extraordinary pupil. A child's 
clear logic and insight often brush aside follies to which 
grown people become so accustomed as to confuse them 
with eternal truth, and with the child's "Why?" not only 
drive the teacher to his wit's end but often reveal to 
him, if he has intelligence to see, the weak spots of his 

1 That is, the first five books of the Bible : Genesis, Exodus, Levi- 
ticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 85 

system. Jesus was no ordinary child, and we shall not 
be far wrong, if we picture the old Nazarene Khazzan as 
often driven into a corner by the searching questions of 
the marvelous boy, and as doubtfully wagging his head 
over what such thoughts and questions might signify. 

At ten Jewish boys began to study the Oral Law, 
which later became the Mishna. The familiarity with 
this which Jesus later possessed makes it probable that 
he, too, went to school long enough to have something of 
this course. This study did not delight him as that of 
the Pentateuch had done. The Oral Law, while it grew 
out of a sincere desire to keep God's law, was often 
uninspiring in form and dreary in its details. Some- 
times, too, its purpose was to set aside the rigid obliga- 
tions of the Written Law. For example, the laws of 
the Pentateuch forbid a Jew to lend money to a fellow 
Jew at interest (Ex. 22:25; Lev. 25:36,37; Deut. 
23:19,20). These were laws adapted to an agricul- 
tural people; they made commercial development impos- 
sible. The great Rabbi Hillel, who lived a little earlier 
than Jesus, invented a way of explaining these laws 
which virtually set them aside. According to this the 
Jews could avoid strict obedience to these prohibitions. It 
is this famous explanation of Hillel that has made it 
possible for the Jews to become a great commercial 
people. 

Such evasions of the Pentateuch were looked upon by 
Jesus with great dislike. To profess to keep the Law 
while abolishing it, he regarded as hypocrisy. He later 
reproached the Pharisees with making of no effect the 
word of God through their traditions (Mark 7:13; 
Matt. 15:6). We are not, we believe, wrong in think- 
ing that such differences between the Oral and Written 
Law were perceived by his clear mind when a child at 



86 Jesus of Nazareth 

school, and that even then the problem of the relation 
between the two began to exercise his thought. 

In the preceding paragraphs we have spoken as though 
the mind and character of the boy Jesus were moulded in 
part by his environment and education, in a way similar 
to the growth of other children. Some will doubtless 
think this irreverent. They hold him to be God incar- 
nate, and they cannot conceive, therefore, of the exist- 
ence of any likeness between him and other human be- 
ings. Such people forget that incarnation, if real, in- 
volves the possession of a human mind and an inner de- 
velopment that is really human. Anything short of this 
would not be an incarnation. This was the view of St. 
Luke, who tells us that "J esus increased in wisdom" as 
well as in stature — a statement which implies at the start 
a lack of complete knowledge and wisdom. His human- 
ity was real humanity; his childhood a real childhood. 
His growth proceeded as that of other children proceeds. 
Home environment, school training, and the religious 
services and ideals of the synagogue, all had their in- 
fluence upon him. 

Just how all this could be and Jesus be at the same 
time the eternal Son of God, we may not be able to 
say. Many devout Christians suppose that when he be- 
came incarnate he deliberately laid aside some of the at- 
tributes of divinity — among these, omniscience — in order 
that his humanity might be real. St. Paul believed that 
Jesus did this, for he declares that, "He emptied him- 
self, taking the form of a servant, being made in the 
likeness of men" (Phil. 2:j). Naturally, this is a mat- 
ter of faith. It lies in a region that the human mind 
cannot penetrate. As we proceed in the study of the 
life of Jesus, however, we find much that strengthens 
our faith that something like this he actually did. We 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 87 

tread, however, on the safe ground of historical fact 
when we regard his boyhood as a real boyhood, his hu- 
manity as a real humanity, and also trust his conscious- 
ness that he was the Son of God. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE BOY'S VISIT TO THE TEMPLE 

(Luke 2 : 41-51.) 

AT the age of twelve a Jewish boy became subject 
to the obligations of the Jewish Law. Up to 
that time he had been a child; now he was a 
member of the congregation of the synagogue, the obli- 
gation to go to Jerusalem three times a year to "appear 
before Jehovah" rested upon him, as well as the duty 
of obeying the other details of the Law. A boy's en- 
trance upon these responsibilities corresponded to "con- 
firmation" in some branches of the Christian Church. 
Fortunately for us, the Gospel of Luke relates one in- 
cident connected with this important period of the life 
of Jesus. It tells us something of Jesus' first visit to 
Jerusalem as a son of the Law. His parents were accus- 
tomed to go to Jerusalem every year at the time of the 
Passover to celebrate that solemn festival in the place 
God had chosen, and when he was twelve they took 
Jesus with them. So far as we know Jesus had not up 
to this time been any distance away from Nazareth since 
he was brought there as a baby. 

If our chronology of his life is correct, this experi- 
ence, which meant so much to the eager, sensitive boy, 
occurred in March or April of the year 4 A.D. At that 
time Archelaus, the incompetent son of Herod the Great 
who was Tetrarch of Judaea, had still two more years to 
rule before he became so intolerable that Augustus ban- 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 89 

ished him to southern Gaul (now France). If, how- 
ever, Joseph and Mary had ever had any fear of Arche- 
laus, it had vanished by this time. In the obscurity of 
Nazareth the child Jesus had escaped the notice of the 
ruler. If the coming of the wise men from the East 
was an historic fact, it had occurred twelve years before ; 
nothing had happened to disturb the peace of the king- 
dom meantime, and the incident was forgotten. Jesus 
could go to the feast and Archelaus would never give 
him a thought. 

One likes to picture this first journey of the Christ 
Child. When one remembers with what eager pleasure 
one journeyed from his boyhood's home and caught some 
glimpses of the world, recalling the vivid impressions 
still engraven deep in memory, he can enter a little into 
the meaning of this first journey of the Boy of Nazareth. 
The company of pilgrims from Nazareth wound its way 
from the little basin in which Nazareth lies out into the 
Plain of Esdrselon and at first journeyed southward, 
passing the village of Nain on the higher land at their 
left. It then turned southeastward, because just across 
the Plain of Esdrselon on the south lay the country of 
Samaria, inhabited by a people who were heretics. Feel- 
ing ran high between Jews and Samaritans, and, had 
they gone straight ahead through Samaria, they might 
have been involved in quarrels. They might, too, be 
ceremonially defiled so as to be unable to partake of the 
feast. Soon after turning southeastward they passed at 
some distance on their left hand the village of Shunem, 
where the most beautiful girl in all Israel had once been 
found (see I Kings 1 : 3, 4), and where at a later time 
there lived some friends of the prophet Elisha, whose 
son Elisha is said to have raised from the dead (II 
Kings 4). Farther on they passed to the north of the 



90 Jesus of Nazareth 

city of Jezreel, once the residence of Ahab and Jezebel 
and later the scene of Jehu's bloody victory over the last 
of Ahab's house. Soon the mountains of Gilboa, which 
witnessed the defeat of King Saul and his death at the 
hands of the Philistines, rose high on their right hand. 
Rounding the base of Gilboa, the pilgrims could see at 
a distance to the left the city of Scythopolis, the Beth- 
shean of the Old Testament. It was the deliverance of 
this city from the Ammonites that a thousand years be- 
fore had made Saul king, and to the walls of the same 
city the Philistines, after the fateful battle of Gilboa, 
had fastened Saul's body. About four hundred years 
later some Scythians who invaded Palestine seem to have 
settled there, and the city was called Scythopolis from 
them. Sixty-three years before Christ the Roman gen- 
eral Pompey had found many Greeks settled there and 
had made it one of the cities of the Decapolis — ten cities 
that were given over to Greek culture and which were 
permitted a degree of self-government. 1 Architecturally 
these cities were much more beautiful than most of the 
cities of Palestine. They contained streets flanked on 
either side with beautiful columns, fine temples, and large 
outdoor theaters. The traveler may still behold the re- 
mains of the theater of Scythopolis. The pilgrims from 
Nazareth would not go near this heathen city, for to do 
so would incur such defilement that they could not eat 
the Passover, but we may be sure that the boy Jesus 
asked many questions about it as he saw its marble struc- 
tures reflecting the rays of the sun. 

From the base of Gilboa the little band went south- 
ward down the valley of the Jordan. High on their 
right rose the hills of Samaria; below them on the left 
the silver thread of the river Jordan — which is so 

iSee Ch. I, p. 11. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 91 

crooked that it runs two hundred miles which a straight 
line would cover in sixty — could be seen winding in and 
out. Beyond the river and the upward sloping plain 
of its eastward shore, rose the high lands of Pergea. 
When the party left Nazareth in the early spring morn- 
ing the air had been cold; in the Jordan valley it was 
uncomfortably hot. Outer garments were laid aside, and 
probably the animated conversations that had cheered 
the morning gave way to silence as in the heat the pil- 
grims, overtaken by weariness, plodded on. As the 
company traveled southward in the tropical valley, where 
luxuriant fields of grain surrounded them and tall, tropi- 
cal oleanders, laden with pink blooms, adorned the land- 
scape, they could see, whenever they looked behind them, 
snow-capped Hermon, far to the north, raising its head 
and overlooking like a sentinel, with its touch of arctic 
splendor, the verdant, torrid valley in which the pilgrims 
were sweltering. 

Three hours after leaving Scythopolis the party came 
to a copious spring. It is to-day called by an Arabic 
name which means the white or silent spring. It was 
probably here that the travelers halted for their first 
night. As they bivouacked under the open sky, the bril- 
liant Palestinian stars looked down upon them. As the 
youthful Jesus looked up at the stars, he thought of the 
Heavenly Father who had made them and to whose 
house he was going. 

On the second day's march the pilgrims passed the 
point where the Jabbok, flowing from the east, empties 
into the Jordan. Looking across the river they could 
see the deep notch in the hills out of which the Jabbok 
flowed. Perhaps they thought of the hordes of Midian- 
ites who, in the days of Gideon, had poured down this 
valley to invade and devour their land. A little farther 



92 Jesus of Nazareth 

to the south they crossed the Wady Faria, up which the 
Midianites had gone in pursuit of their plunder. Toward 
night of the second day from Nazareth they passed the 
highest mountain that overlooks the Jordan valley on 
the west, the top of which rises 2,227 feet above the floor 
of the valley. It seems to have been crowned at that 
time by a fortress built about ninety years before by 
Alexander Jannaeus and called the Alexandreion — a for- 
tress that had been the scene of some dark domestic 
tragedies in the family life of Herod the Great. Here 
Herod had imprisoned his wife, Mariamne, and here he 
had buried his two strangled sons. 

During the journey of the third day the little com- 
pany passed two other places of note, Phasaelis and 
Archelais. The former had been built by Herod the 
Great and named for his brother, the latter by Archelaus 
and named for himself. Both were surrounded by fa- 
mous palm-orchards, and their architecture, in contrast 
to the rough Jewish buildings of the time, was strikingly 
attractive. Probably the third night of the journey was 
spent at Jericho — a place famed in Jewish story for 
Joshua's capture of the city. The Jericho of the time of 
Christ was, however, a mile and a half from the spot on 
which the city captured by Joshua stood. Herod the 
Great had adorned it with a palace, had built a reservoir 
for its water-supply, and surrounded it with palm-trees, 
but in the time of Archelaus it had begun to fall into 
neglect. Archelaus had diverted some of its water to 
Archelais to irrigate the gardens about his own vil- 
lage. Jericho was, however, still famous for its palm- 
trees. 

On the fourth day the little caravan, perhaps by this 
time joined by other companies of Jews from the Jordan 
valley and Peraea, began the ascent of the Judsean hills 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 93 

toward Jerusalem. As they climbed these hills and the 
boy Jesus looked back, the Jordan valley, here at its 
widest extent, was spread out before him. Across its 
twenty miles of plain rose the rugged outline of the 
trans-Jordanic mountains, on which of old the tribes of 
Gad and Reuben had dwelt. At the south end of the 
broad valley appeared the crystal waters of the Dead Sea, 
reflecting the brilliant rays of the morning sun, its slug- 
gish ripples seeming to wash the base of the distant 
mountains of Moab. One wonders what thoughts rilled 
the mind of Jesus as he gazed upon the scene. Was 
he more impressed with the majestic beauty of the land- 
scape, or did his thoughts go back to the traditions of 
Genesis concerning the destruction of the cities of the 
plain? Was he impressed with the power of his Father 
wondrously to carve out the great valley, erect the 
mighty mountains, clothe them with verdure, soften 
their outlines with the atmospheric blue which always 
tinges them when viewed from a distance — a blue almost 
without equal in Western lands — and touch them with 
the glory of the morning sun? Or did he think rather 
of the story of the cities, and reflect upon the laws of 
God — how he punishes sin and how those who thwart his 
will inevitably perish ? 

Westward and upward the cavalcade proceeded, over 
rocky and barren hills, strewn with stones and flint. 
When about half way up to Jerusalem, as the party 
passed over a ridge, the top of the Mount of Olives be- 
came visible far above them to the west. Probably Jos- 
eph or Mary pointed out to Jesus that just behind the 
peak of that mountain lay the Sacred City. His heart 
would beat faster as he pressed eagerly forward, little 
thinking, perhaps, how in subsequent centuries men of 
many races would look with reverential interest upon 



94 Jesus of Nazareth 

that mountain because of its sacred associations with 
him. 

As the company reached the eastern slope of Olivet 
it came to the village of Bethany, the home of a certain 
Simon, who had three children of about the same age as 
Jesus: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, In later life these 
three were special friends of Jesus. One wonders 
whether Simon may not have been a friend of Joseph, 
whether the family of Nazareth did not, during the 
Feast, lodge here as Jesus did during a similar Feast 
years later, and whether the friendship that meant so 
much to him during his weary ministry did not begin 
now. These are questions which we cannot answer. 
Perhaps the family pressed on over Olivet that very 
night to the city itself. Even if the family stopped for 
the night in Bethany, we may be sure that Jesus went 
before nightfall up to the top of the Mount of Olives to 
get a glimpse of the city about which so many associa- 
tions clustered. 

As one comes from the desolate wilderness of Judah 
over or around the slopes of Olivet to-day the view of 
the towers and domes of Jerusalem is extremely beauti- 
ful and impressive. In the time of Christ, when the 
Temple of Herod was still in full possession of its origi- 
nal splendor, when just west of it and above it rose the 
old palace of the Asmonsean princes, and farther to the 
west rose the massive palace of Herod with its towers 
and extensive gardens, it must have been much more im- 
pressive than it is now. If the Jerusalem of to-day, as 
one thus comes upon it from the east, even if it has been 
seen before, awakens strange emotions in the breast of a 
traveler who has beheld the great cities of the world, 
what must have been the feelings with which the Boy of 
Nazareth beheld it for the first time — the Boy who re- 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 95 

garded it as the dwelling place of his Heavenly Father ! 

Of the details of this first Passover Feast we have no 
record. It was customary for several families to com- 
bine and form a "company." Such a company purchased 
a paschal lamb in common. At every Passover in Jeru- 
salem there were many such companies. The lambs had 
to be slain "between the two evenings," which was in- 
terpreted to mean between noon and sunset. The lambs 
were killed in the Temple, where other sacrifices were 
slain. The Temple courts were crowded full, the gates 
were closed, then the priests killed the lambs of those 
who were in the Temple. Meantime the Levites stand- 
ing on a raised platform recited the Hallel (Psalms 113- 
118). If the killing occupied considerable time, the 
Hallel was repeated. When the lambs were slain and 
bled, the owners took the meat home to roast it. The 
Temple courts were filled again, and the slaying began 
once more. This was repeated until everybody was pro- 
vided with Passover meat. At the feast, which was 
eaten after nightfall, the meat had to be all consumed 
and every member of the family must eat some of it. It 
was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. At 
the time of Christ each Israelite was required during the 
eating of the Passover to drink some wine. The solemn 
period inaugurated by the Passover continued for seven 
days. Probably the pilgrims from Nazareth remained 
in Jerusalem or its neighborhood all this time. 

Apparently it was not the details of the Feast that in- 
terested the boy Jesus so much as the Temple, its spa- 
cious courts, its throngs of priests and rabbis who were 
supposed to be deeply versed in the mysteries of God. 
Here he wandered day after day. He talked with the 
wise men, he thought about his Father, he stood thought- 
fully before the Holy of Holies. Joseph and Mary al- 



g6 Jesus of Nazareth 

lowed him large liberty. Many acquaintances had come 
with them from Galilee, and they permitted him to 
mingle freely with all of these. So absorbed was he in 
exploring the wisdom of the doctors in the Temple and 
in meditating there, that, when the caravan of pilgrims 
started again for Galilee, he remained behind in the 
Temple. The story is reported as though he did it pur- 
posely, knowing that the family and their neighbors were 
starting for Nazareth. 

Be that as it may, Joseph and Mary went a day's 
journey on their homeward way before they missed him. 
They supposed that he was traveling in the company of 
some of their friends. Probably some started earlier 
than others and during the day they were not all in sight 
of one another at the same time. When, however, they 
encamped for the night, probably at or near Jericho, 
Jesus was not to be found, so after an anxious night, 
Joseph and Mary with troubled hearts toiled again up the 
steeps four thousand feet high, between Jericho and 
Jerusalem. On their arrival they inquired right and left 
for their boy, but did not find him. It was not till the 
next morning that it occurred to them to look in the 
Temple. Apparently during their seven days' stay they 
had not taken note of the deep fascination that the sacred 
precincts had for him. There they found him, sitting in 
the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking 
them questions. The doctors were also asking him ques- 
tions, which he answered in a way that revealed an in- 
sight far beyond his years, for "all that heard him were 
astonished at his understanding and his answers." 

When Joseph and Mary saw Jesus so occupied in these 
august surroundings, they were no less astonished than 
the others. Mary, like many mothers, felt aggrieved that 
her boy seemed to place other claims higher than her 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 97 

own, and she exclaimed: "Child, why hast thou treated 
us thus? (For so we might render the Greek.) Be- 
hold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." 
Jesus then said : "How is it that ye sought me ? Did 
ye not know that I ought to be among the things of my 
Father?" This reply of Jesus is enigmatical, and in- 
terpreters have been at a loss to know whether it means 
"I ought to be in my Father's house," or "I ought to be 
about my Father's business." 

Whatever may be the meanings possible to the words 
of Jesus, they show us that his soul was possessed of a 
very vivid consciousness of God. The fact that God was 
his Father overshadowed for the moment every other 
thought. The duty of learning more about God eclipsed 
for the moment every other duty. In that duty he was 
absorbed. He did not mean to be undutiful to his par- 
ents; apparently he supposed that they would under- 
stand. He seemed surprised that they did not compre- 
hend the absorbing passion that possessed him. Appar- 
ently he took it for granted that they would know where 
he was and how he was occupied. 

Such was Jesus when twelve years old. In his soul 
there was a vivid consciousness of God, his nearness and 
his Fatherhood. That consciousness seemed to proph- 
esy the possibility of an unusual life and a religious mis- 
sion. Still, he was a dutiful boy. He went back to 
Nazareth with his parents and was subject to them as 
any other Jewish boy would have been. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE SILENT YEARS AT NAZARETH 

AFTER Jesus' first Passover in Jerusalem, the 
Gospels give us no direct account of how the 
years until his baptism were occupied. We have 
only a few indirect hints as to what the course of his 
life was. From these hints and from our knowledge of 
his surroundings and of him, we can put together a 
few facts and draw a probable picture. 

Possibly after the return from Jerusalem Jesus con- 
tinued for a time to attend the synagogue school. In 
later centuries Jewish boys began at fifteen to study the 
Talmud, or, to be more specific, the legal decisions of 
the rabbis who commented on the Mishna. As these 
comments are all much later than the time of Jesus, 
they could not have formed a part of the course of study 
in the schools when he was a boy. 

There is no doubt, however, that, as he grew older 
he entered more and more largely into the work of the 
carpenter, assisting Joseph in his various tasks. On 
this portion of the life of Jesus some of the Apocryphal 
Gospels delighted to dwell, but there is no reason to< be- 
lieve that their pictures are historical. They love to 
represent Joseph as a clumsy workman, who was al- 
ways making mistakes that ruined his work, and Jesus 
as coming to Joseph's aid and performing a miracle 
which saved Joseph from disgrace and loss. We are 
beginning now to understand that that is not God's 
way. Fie permits men to learn by their mistakes; he 

98 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 99 

does not perform miracles to enable them to escape the 
consequences of their own stupidity or carelessness. 
We are to think of Jesus as helping in the simple parts 
of the carpenter's work, just as any other boy of his 
years might do. 

During these years of silence it seems probable, as 
others have suggested, that Jesus often climbed to the 
top of the hill to the northwest of Nazareth which rises 
to a height of 1,600 feet above the Mediterranean Sea 
and from the top of which an extensive and beautiful 
view is seen. The top of the hill is to-day surmounted 
by a Weli, or the tomb of a supposed Mohammedan 
saint called Sain or Sim'an. It is well known now that 
when the Canaanites lived in Palestine a god called 
Baal was worshiped on the hilltop above every village, 
and this worship was continued in Judaea down to the 
Babylonian Exile. In southern Galilee it was continued 
down to the conquest of the country about 109 B.C. by 
John Hyrcanus I, who compelled the inhabitants to be- 
come Jews in religion. Afterward many Jews from 
Judaea settled in Galilee and it was, perhaps, at this 
time that the ancestors of Joseph and Mary migrated 
to Galilee and settled in Nazareth. Of course the wor- 
ship of Baal on the hill above Nazareth was then dis- 
continued, but, like similar hills in other parts of Pales- 
tine, the hill remained sacred in the estimation of the 
people. The sanctity was, as in other cases, accounted 
for by supposing that some saintly Jew had been buried 
there, and people often resorted to his tomb to pray. In 
later centuries many of these old sanctuaries were re- 
garded as the burial places of Christian saints and still 
later of Mohammedan saints. 

We cannot be wrong, therefore, in supposing that, 
when Jesus climbed the hill, its top was occupied by the 



ioo Jesus of Nazareth 

tomb (or the supposed tomb) of a saintly Jew named 
Simeon, for the name Sim'an, by which the possessor 
of the tomb is still known is an Arabic corruption of 
Simeon, and names in Palestine persist through many 
centuries. Who this Simeon was, we have no means 
of knowing; Simeon was a common name among the 
Jews. According to Luke 3 : 30 one of the ancestors of 
Jesus had, in the seventh or eighth century B.C., been 
named Simeon, but he can hardly have been thought to 
live in Nazareth. An aged Simeon had greeted Joseph 
and Mary when they presented Jesus in the Temple at 
Jerusalem. Possibly he was in reality one of their 
neighbors in Nazareth who was afterward buried here, 
but that is not probable. 

Whoever the Simeon may have been, he was re- 
garded as a godly man; the people of Nazareth ven- 
erated his tomb; they kept it in repair; they white- 
washed it to make it appear pure and attractive. As 
Jesus, during the silent years at Nazareth often climbed 
the hill to pray, the tomb impressed him. He recalled 
the virtues of Simeon, the heroic deeds of other saints 
and prophets in Israel, whose tombs were preserved 
here and there, whose deeds were venerated, and whose 
virtues were extolled. He thought of the inconsistency 
of those who paid lip-homage to prophets and saintly 
men while they ordered their conduct exactly as the 
men did who brought the saints and prophets to their 
death (see Matt. 23:29, Luke 11:47). At other times 
he was impressed by the contrast between the outside 
of the tomb, so white and pure, and the inside, so dif- 
ferent, and the contrast seemed to him exactly like that 
between the outwardly correct lives and the hateful 
\ hearts of some people he knew (Matt. 23:27). 

One so sensitive as Jesus to the wonder and beauty 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 101 

of the works of his Father can hardly have failed to 
look at the wonderful view that greets the eye from the 
top of this hill, which he so often climbed for the pur- 
pose of prayer. Across the hills to the west he could 
see a bit of the Mediterranean, dotted with an occasional 
sail, reflecting at times the sunshine from its blue waters, 
and at times angry with the winds of winter. To the 
southwest was the long low range of Carmel, the wooded 
slopes of which are of a different green from that of 
the adjoining plain. Eastward from Carmel in a long 
sweep to Mount Gilboa on the southeast the eye looks 
upon a grand panorama. The great fertile plain of 
Esdraslon is spread out in the foreground, while beyond 
it the numerous hilltops of the Samaritan country rise 
like billows, each, on account of varying distances, as- 
suming a different tint of blue. To the left of Gilboa 
is seen a part of the wonderful chasm of the Jordan, be- 
yond which rise the distant mountains of Gilead. As 
the eye sweeps northward the crest of Mount Moreh 
cuts off for a time the view of the lands across the 
Jordan; then above the low hills directly to the east of 
Nazareth rises the rounded top of Mount Tabor, the 
highest peak of the region, which reaches a height of 
2,800 feet. In the time of Christ a village crowned its 
summit. Xorth of Mount Tabor one could then catch 
a glimpse of Gadara, one of the cities of the Greek 
Decapolis, the marble architecture of which gleamed 
white in the sunlight. Then far to the northeast the 
eye was caught by the hoary head of Mount Hermon, 
snow-capped from November to the end of July, the 
highest peak in that part of the world. To the north 
one looks upon the multitudinous hills of Galilee, rising 
ever higher as they recede to the northward, and, in the 
time of Christ bearing on their slopes or sheltering in 



VJ 



102 Jesus of Nazareth 

their valleys some two hundred and thirty cities and vil- 
lages. Such is the transparency of the air. of Palestine 
that the details of this wonderful panorama stand out 
with vivid clearness. 

In every age the affections of the Hebrew have en- 
twined about the hills and valleys of this wonderful land, 
and some psalmists found in them a revelation of God 
(see Psalm 95:4, 5). If the hills, the valleys, and the 
sea thus moved a poet to worship, it is practically certain 
that they had a like effect upon Jesus. Then, too, the 
landscape recalled many historical scenes, filled with pa- 
triotic and religious meanings. Looking from the hill 
of Nazareth across the plain to the northwest one could, 
in the time of Christ, see the walls and roofs of Sep- 
phoris. It was the capital of Galilee. There lived Herod 
Antipas, who, under the Romans was the ruler of the 
land. Judseans might despise Nazareth, but its people 
were no backwoodsmen. They lived within three miles 
of the capital of their country. There was, however, 
little in Sepphoris to interest the youthful Jesus. 

One can but think that he gazed much more often at 
Mount Carmel to the southwest, and marked with his 
eye the spot on its summit where Elijah, centuries be- 
fore, had had his contest with the prophets of Baal. Or 
he may have looked a little to the east of that to Megiddo, 
where fifteen hundred years before, the armies of the 
great Egyptian king Thothmes had won their first great 
victory in Asia, and where nine hundred years later an- 
other Egyptian king had defeated and killed the good 
Judasan king Josiah. Near it he could discern Taanach 
where Deborah and Barak had defeated Sisera, In the 
same general direction he could spy out the hills that lay 
about the plain of Dothan, where Joseph's brethren had 
sold him as a slave to be taken to Egypt. Far to the 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 103 

south he could distinguish the peaks of Ebal and Gerizim, 
about which hovered traditions of Abraham, Jacob, 
Shechem, Abimelech, and many others. Before him lay 
the great plain of Esdrselon through which had marched 
the armies of the great conquerors of the world, 
Thothmes, Seti, Rameses, Shalmeneser, Tiglathpileser, 
Alexander, and Pompey. Across the plain of Esdraelon 
on the foothills of Gilboa lay the city of Jezreel, famed 
as the residence of Ahab, which had witnessed the 
slaughter of Jezebel, and the bloody deeds of Jehu. 
Wherever he looked, voices from the past spoke to him 
of wickedness or of faith, of heroic deeds, of high aspi- 
rations unfulfilled. If the scene on which he looked 
spoke to him of the Great Father, the history that it re- 
called must often have led him to ponder what that 
Father's purposes might be for the future. How would 
God lead his people? Who would their great deliverer 
be? When would he appear? With swelling heart and 
exalted thoughts the young Carpenter of Nazareth must 
often have descended from the hilltop to his work or to 
his rest. 

Some years before Jesus began his ministry Joseph 
died and Jesus, the oldest son, became the sole support 
of the family. We learn this from Mark 6:3, where, we 
are told, people said : "Is not this the carpenter, the son 
of Mary?" Had Joseph been living, or had he died but 
recently, they would have said : "Is not this the son of 
Joseph?" In Palestine men were not called sons of 
their mothers unless the father, or he who passed as the 
father, had been dead for a number of years, during 
which the widow had been the head of the family. The 
passage, too, calls Jesus the carpenter, not simply, the 
carpenter's son. It consequently gives us a glimpse into 
the struggles with which the later portion of the silent 



104 Jesus of Nazareth 

years at Nazareth were filled. There were four broth- 
ers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judah, probably all 
younger than Jesus, 1 and at least two sisters. To win 
bread for these hungry children was no light task, and 
the task was not made easier by the conditions of the 
country at the time. 

The Apocryphal Gospels 2 think of Joseph and Jesus 
as carpenters of such exalted reputation that Abgar, a 
king of a country by the distant Euphrates, would send 
them an order to make a throne for him ; but all that is 
pure fancy. Abgar and Jesus were not really contempo- 
rary! The carpenters of Nazareth were simple folk, 
whose work was probably confined to making yokes for 
oxen, the wooden part of plows, making and putting up 
doors for houses and sheepfolds, and similar work. 
They were employed by the people of Nazareth and the 
villages immediately surrounding it. It was humble 
work, and the pay was small. We know that the wages 
of unskilled laborers at the time were a Roman denarius 
(about sixteen cents) a day. We do not know whether 
carpenters were paid more, but probably they were not. 
We do not know whether they were paid by the day or 
the piece. Probably the wages of Jesus as a carpenter 
did not exceed those of other laborers. 

It is altogether probable that the family of Mary also 
cultivated a garden or a small farm. Most dwellers in 
Palestinian towns had small holdings of land outside the 
village, and those who did not have land of their own 
could easily lease a small plot. Food raised in the garden 
would help to supply the demands of the hungry chil- 
dren and would make the denarii which the carpenter's 

1 For different theories as to the relationship of these ''brethren" 
to Jesus, see Chapter XII, p. 80. 

2 See Chapter II, for the names of some of them. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 105 

trade brought in go further. The cultivation of a small 
tract of land would not interfere with the satisfaction of 
such demands as a small town like Nazareth would make 
on its carpenter. It is not improbable that he who later 
became the sower of that seed which he defined as the 
word of God (see Mark 4: 14) had often himself sown 
wheat, barley, and millet on some hillside near Nazareth. 
For some years, then, Jesus was an artisan; he be- 
longed to the great army of the world's hand- workers. 
This links him in sympathy to all working people. The 
conditions of labor in his surroundings were not ideal. 
Wages were low, and taxes were heavy. Civil taxes 
were not fixed by law. The system known as tax-farm- 
ing prevailed. An official was given the privilege of col- 
lecting the taxes. This official had to pay over to< his 
superiors a certain amount, but was permitted to collect 
from the people as much as he could squeeze out of them. 
In addition to the political taxes, there were the Temple 
taxes of a half-shekel each year. In this obscure village, 
occupied with these lowly tasks, Jesus, to whom we now 
look as the Light of the world passed several years. 
Bravely he bore hardships; faithfully he toiled. If he 
ever complained there is no record of it. He was un- 
distinguished at the time among the millions of the 
world's peasant toilers. We may be sure that he did 
good work. No doubt the carpenter of Nazareth had a 
good reputation. For his wages he gave value received. 
He never practised sabotage. His timbers and boards 
were well fitted together; his nails well driven. People 
from neighboring villages no doubt were glad to secure 
the services of so faithful a worker, but, after all, as 
much could be said of many another peasant soul in 
many parts of the world, who remained a peasant to 
the end. 



106 Jesus of Nazareth 

During these years Jesus never permitted his work to 
cramp his life. Intellectually he made that life as full 
as the opportunities of the little village would permit. 
He was faithful to the services of the synagogue on the 
Sabbath, and, what is more, he was a faithful reader of 
such books as the synagogue library afforded. We know 
that he could read so well that he was often employed 
to read the lessons in the synagogue on the Sabbath, for 
once during his ministry, when he was in Nazareth on 
the Sabbath, the rolls were as a matter of course given 
him to read (see Luke 4: 16). We know, too, that he 
had quietly read, pondered, and understood the Old Tes- 
tament Scriptures in a way that was unusual among 
Jews of his class, for the Rabbis of Jerusalem at a later 
time are said to have marveled that one not trained in 
their schools should have his deep knowledge (see John 
7 : 15). We may be sure that during these years he was 
often found reading the books of the Law, the rolls of 
the Prophets, and the volume of the Psalms. 

Doubtless there were other books in the synagogue 
library that he also read. Two of these we can with 
great probability identify. One of them is the "Wisdom 
of Joshua, the Son of Sirach," now commonly called 
Ecclesiasticus. It was written in Hebrew about 180 B.C. 
Jesus read it, for in later years he took some thoughts 
from its fifth chapter, verses 1-5, and wove them into 
the parable of the "Rich Fool" (Luke 12 : 16-21), 

Another book that he probably read during these years 
and thought much about was the Book of Enoch, or the 
part of it known as the "Enoch Parables," which may 
at that time have been still in circulation as a separate 
work. They had been written at some time between 95 
and 79 B.C. This book was an apocalypse, 1 and, like 

1 An apocalypse was a kind of prophecy. Chapter VIII, p. 51 ff. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 107 

other apocalypses, was occupied with prophetic visions 
of the coming of the Kingdom of God. More than most 
apocalypses it concerns itself with a portrait of the ex- 
pected Messiah. Of all the pre-Christian apocalypses 
known to us it alone applies to the Messiah the term "Son 
of Man" (see Enoch 46:1,2; 48:2). In Dan. 7:13 
the term had been employed to designate a human being 
to whom the Messianic kingdom was likened. This was 
in contrast to the fierce beasts to which the earthly king- 
doms, mentioned in the preceding verses, had been com- 
pared. In the Enoch Pai Joles, however, the term "Son 
of Man" means, not the Messianic kingdom, but the 
Messiah himself. Afterward, when Jesus entered upon 
his Messianic mission, he chose this term "Son of Man" 
out of all the titles applied to the Messiah as the one by 
which to call himself. One reason for this choice we 
shall note in a subsequent chapter. The fact that he 
chose it makes the probability great that he had read 
the Enoch Parables, and often thought about their mean- 
ingSsJn this connection another significant fact should 
be noted. In the Enoch Parables the Messiah is por- 
trayed as a heavenly being who has existed in the pres- 
ence of God in heaven from before the foundation of the 
world. Enoch, it is said, when an angel conducted him 
through heaven, saw the Son of Man there, inquired who 
he was, was told of his preexistence, his justice, and his 
Messianic destiny, and that, when the time was ripe, he 
would descend to the earth. If Jesus became familiar 
with the Messianic use of the term "Son of Man" 
through the pages of Enoch, he must also have become 
familiar with the belief that the Messiah was a heavenly 
being, preexisting with God, who would, when God saw 
fit, be sent for the establishment upon the earth of God's 
kingdom. The probability that Jesus read and often 



108 Jesus of Nazareth 

thought about this apocalyptic work lends a vivid mean- 
ing to the Messianic claim that he put forth at a later 
time. The picture of the Messiah in the Enoch Parables 
helps us to understand what was involved in his claim 
to be the Messiah. 

Thus, in cultivating the soil, in working as a carpen- 
ter, in reading, meditation, and prayer, the years passed 
until the brothers were grown, others could win the bread 
for the widowed mother, and his own manhood was 
mature. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 

(Mark i : i-ii; Matt. 3: 1-17; Luke 3: 1-23.) 

IN the year 27 or 28 A.D. a great stir was created 
among the Jews of Palestine by the appearance of 
a new and wonderful preacher, John, called the Bap- 
tist. John the Baptist was a distant cousin of Jesus. 
John's father, Zacharias, was a Jewish priest, but John 
all through his life, so far as it is known to us, had 
made, not the priests, but the prophets his model. One 
prophet in particular, Elijah, was his hero. He would 
be like Elijah. 

Almost nine hundred years before, Elijah had come 
into western Palestine from the east-Jordan lands and 
had begun to preach. In the east -Jordan country people 
have always been more like the Bedawin than they have 
in western Palestine. They have lived more in tents, 
have clothed themselves in rough sheepskins, and have 
often been satisfied with the sparse diet of the wander- 
ing Arabs. Before the Israelites conquered Palestine they 
had lived in a similar manner. The life of the nomad or 
Bedawin seemed, therefore, to the Israelites much more 
the kind of life that Jehovah, their God, approved than 
did the more civilized, settled, agricultural life of Canaan. 
It thus came about that there was a tradition in Israel 
that the highest type of prophet must be like Elijah. 

Before John began to preach, therefore, he had re- 
tired to the wild uncultivated regions of Judaea above the 

109 



no Jesus of Nazareth 

Dead Sea, which are known as the wilderness of Judaea, 
and had lived in communion with nature, in lonely medi- 
tation, and in prayer. He lived on such food as the wil- 
derness afforded; according to popular rumor it con- 
sisted of locusts and wild honey. He dressed in a rough 
sheepskin, and during the warm summer months reduced 
his raiment to a sheepskin loin-cloth. After a period of 
such retirement and meditation, the length of which we 
have no means of guessing, John went to the Jordan 
valley, up and down which Jews traveled in passing 
from Judaea to Galilee and Peraea, and began to preach. 
The burden of his message was : "Repent ye, for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand." It was a message de- 
signed to stir Judaism to its depths and to awaken in the 
heart of every Jew great expectations, and it was not 
long before the banks of the Jordan were thronged by 
Jews from every quarter, drawn thither by their desire 
to see the new prophet and to hear his addresses. 

The reason why the message of John took just this 
form and created such a sensation is easily discovered. 
From the time of the prophet Isaiah onward the Jews 
had been expecting a Messiah, or anointed king, who 
should free them from foreign rule, set up a kingdom, 
and establish an extensive empire. It has already been 
pointed out how, as time passed, the expectation of a 
Messiah was transformed. 1 The expected king, at first 
simply an earthly monarch, became a heavenly being to 
be sent from the sky. Sometimes it was thought that 
God would himself come down and establish the king- 
dom. In any event, it was thought that the kingdom 
would be set up by supernatural means. There would be 
a great upheaval, accompanied by a terrible slaughter of 
Israel's enemies, and the righteous Jews would be re- 

i See Chapter VIII, p. 51. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry m 

warded for all their sufferings by being given, under God 
or his Messiah, rule over the world. During the eighty 
years and more of Roman rule the intensity of these ex- 
pectations had increased; Jews were impatiently await- 
ing the great Day, which was thought to be near. These 
expectations John shared. This was why his message 
took the form that it did. The prophet Malachi had pre- 
dicted that before the great Day should come God would 
send Elijah. Doubtless it was this that led John to 
imitate Elijah; he regarded himself as the heaven-sent 
herald of the kingdom of whom Malachi had spoken. 

The Jewish people, fondly entertaining the hope that 
the Messiah would soon come to deliver them from Rome 
and, familiar with this prophecy of Malachi, were pro- 
foundly stirred by the appearance of John the Baptist 
in the role of a preacher. His dress and habits were like 
those of Elijah. Everybody who heard about him and 
could leave home flocked to the Jordan to hear him. 
"Then went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and 
all the region round about the Jordan." John demanded 
not only repentance in preparation for participating in 
the coming kingdom of God, but an outward sign of re- 
pentance. That outward sign was baptism. 

During the two centuries or more before the coming 
of Christ the Jews had attempted to convert the heathen 
world to Judaism. Those who in consequence of these 
efforts sought to enter Judaism were compelled to submit 
to certain rites. One of these consisted of immersion in 
water. It was a symbol that the person was cleansed 
of everything connected with heathenism. To this sym- 
bol John gave a new significance. He demanded that 
Jews should be baptized in token that they repented of 
all their sins and desired to participate in the kingdom 
of God. The eagerness with which Jews of all kinds 



112 Jesus of Nazareth 

and from every quarter hastened to the Jordan to sub- 
mit to this rite, designed originally for Gentiles, attests 
the depth of their yearning for the kingdom of God as 
they understood it. 

John had the real prophetic spirit. For religious for- 
malism, indifference, and sham he had no respect. He 
reproved self-righteous Pharisees and cold, formal Sad- 
ducees as vipers ; he urged tax-gatherers to exact no more 
than their due; he exhorted soldiers not to plunder. 
With a simple, stern morality like that of Elijah, his 
preaching came like a fresh, healthy breath of air into 
the stifling atmosphere of ceremonialism and hypocrisy. 

The fame of John soon reached Nazareth. We have 
no means of knowing whether there had been any close 
acquaintance between Jesus and his kinsman John. Jesus 
had been occupied with his work as a carpenter at Naz- 
areth while John had been apparently for some years an 
anchorite in the wilderness of Judaea. Jesus had, in all 
probability, gone frequently to Jerusalem to attend the 
Jewish feasts. Perhaps John had come from the wil- 
derness to do the same. If so, they doubtless had met in 
Jerusalem, but whether they had intimate talks about 
matters of religion and about their hopes for Judaea and 
the world we do not know. It would be interesting to 
think that they did. But whether Jesus had had inti- 
mate personal acquaintance with John or not, he now 
went to the Jordan to be baptized by him. 

The exact time when Jesus did this is unknown, but 
we may suppose that it was at the time of the pilgrimage 
to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in 
October of the year 28 A.D. The chronology of subse- 
quent events lends to this theory some probability. ' The 
journey to Jerusalem from Nazareth lay through the 
Jordan valley, and it would be natural, as Jesus was pass- 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 113 

ing so near, for him to turn aside and submit to the rite 
administered by John. The Synoptic Gospels imply that 
Jesus did this just as any other Jew might do it, desiring 
simply to do all that he could to be ready for the coming 
of the kingdom, but with no thought that it was his high 
destiny to inaugurate it. 

In the Gospels of Mark and Luke we are simply told 
that Jesus came and was baptized by John. In these 
Gospels no mention is made of a conversation between 
them before John administered the rite to Jesus. Such 
a conversation was, then, not a part of the earliest tra- 
dition. Matthew, however, reports such a conversation. 
The author of Matthew perhaps inserted it from an oral 
tradition. He tells us that, when Jesus presented him- 
self for baptism, John expressed surprise, saying : "I have 
need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" 
Jesus replied : "Suffer it now : for thus it becometh us 
to fulfil all righteousness" (Matt. 3: 14, 15). If this is 
a genuine tradition, it goes far to show that the two 
cousins, who were destined to usher a new era in re- 
ligion into the world, had met in Jerusalem and had 
talked freely about God and his kingdom. It is implied 
that in such conversations John had recognized in Jesus 
one greater than himself — one the depth of whose knowl- 
edge, and the purity of whose soul were such that it 
seemed to John a desecration to think that his ministry 
could confer upon Jesus any benefit — one by whom it 
would be more fitting for John himself to be baptized. 

When Jesus was baptized, as he came up out of the 
water, he had a great experience. "He saw the heavens 
rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon 
him : and a voice came out of the heavens, Thou art 
my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased" (Mark 
1:10,11). In this Oriental imagery the Gospel of 



H4 Jesus of Nazareth 

Mark, our oldest source, describes an experience that 
took place in the soul of Jesus. 

It was, indeed, a great moment in the life of Jesus, 
for the experience marked the beginning of his realiza- 
tion that he was the Messiah. It was thus a great mo- 
ment in the history of the religion of the world. Saints 
and people of unusual religious capacity sometimes have 
religious experiences of great intensity. They become 
oblivious to what is going on about them. As in a flash 
they seem to see into the heart of things — the very heav- 
ens seem opened. Some new truth flashes into conscious- 
ness with such intensity that it seems to them that they 
hear a voice uttering it. This was such a moment in 
the life of Jesus, though his experience surpassed that 
of others. 1 All his life long he had had an especial reali- 
zation of the nearness of God. At the age of twelve 
he had regarded the heavenly Father as a being as real 
and as vividly near as his mother and Joseph were. 
During the years of toil as a carpenter he had daily 
found refreshment in prayer and communion with God. 
Apparently he had come, as he observed other people, to 
understand that to those about him, God was not so 
real. He saw that their lives were not so immediately 
and fully refreshed by communion with God — that their 



1 Later evangelists understood the circumstances differently. 
Luke introduces the words "in a bodily form" before the words "as 
a dove" (Luke 3:22), to indicate his belief that there was an ex- 
ternal miracle, and not simply an experience in the soul of Jesus. 
A similar tendency to materialize immaterial things is found in other 
passages of his Gospel. The author of the Gospel of John goes even 
further. To him Jesus was so absolutely God and so little human, 
that he could not conceive Jesus as having or needing such an ex- 
perience, so he makes it an outward sign given for the sake of 
John the Baptist (John 1:32,33). The Gospel of Mark, however, 
the oldest Gospel, undoubtedly reports more accurately the account 
of it which Jesus at Cesarea Philippi gave to his disciples, so we 
take it as the real history of the experience. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 115 

natures did not reach down or out or up as his did, and 
did not find God as he found him. 

Until he was baptized, he had not understood just 
what this difference between himself and other people 
meant. He was familiar with the apocalypses; he had 
read again and again the Book of Enoch with its ac- 
count of a Messiah who had lived with God in heaven, 
who had been seen by Enoch near God's throne in 
heaven, and whose glorious destiny had been fore- 
ordained by God before the foundation of the world, 
but, such was the reality of his humanity, it had never 
until now occurred to him that that was a description of 
him. If he ever thought of such a thing, he had re- 
garded the thought as too strange to be true. What con- 
nection could there be between the life of a peasant car- 
penter and such a glorified, godlike being? Now, all in 
a moment, the truth flashed over him. It came with such 
intense vividness that it seemed to be proclaimed by a 
voice from heaven. He could no longer doubt it. 

This was the meaning of his clear realization of God. 
This was why God had seemed to him to be so* much 
nearer than other people found him. This explained 
why he received so much more from communion with 
God than others did. There were depths in his nature 
which were not in theirs. These depths and the un- 
doubted experiences which had come to him from God, 
had been preparing him for a great work. In this mo- 
ment of heaven-given insight he saw that that work was 
the work of the Messiah. Prophets and apocalyptists 
had spoken of that work in marvelous and supernatural 
terms, but whatever it might be, this voice from heaven 
had laid it on him. Language had impoverished itself to 
set forth the wondrous being and preexistent career of 
the Messiah, but, whatever these words might mean, 



n6 Jesus of Nazareth 

God had said that he was that Son, that Messiah. This 
must be the explanation of the depths of his own inner 
nature. He must think of this ; he must examine him- 
self; he must test the call. So he went away into the 
wilderness to think it over. It was thus that there came 
to the Carpenter of Nazareth the call that changed the 
course not only of his earthly life, but of the history of 
the world. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS 

(Mark 1:12, 13; Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13.) 

THE conviction that he was the Messiah, which 
flashed with such power into the mind of Jesus 
as he came out from the waters of the Jordan, 
amazed and bewildered him. He felt the necessity of 
being alone with himself and with God, to think over the 
dazzling and perplexing destiny to which he had been 
called. He accordingly went away into the wilderness 
that he might by prayer and communion adjust himself 
to his great task and its duties. The impulse that led 
him to the solitary wilds was so strong that in speaking 
of it afterward to his disciples he gave them the im- 
pression that he was "led" or "driven" thither by the 
Spirit. 

To us in America, the word wilderness suggests a 
primeval forest, but in Palestine a wilderness is not a 
forest, but a region too rocky and too diversified by deep 
valleys or barren hills for cultivation. It was to such 
a region that Jesus went. The exact location of this 
wilderness is unknown, but for hundreds of years tradi- 
tion has fastened upon a rocky mountain with steep sides 
about two miles west of the site of the city of Jericho. 
Part way up this mountain there is a cavern which, tra- 
dition says, sheltered the Master during these trying days 
of meditation, readjustment, and temptation. Of course 
there is no certainty that the tradition represents the 

117 



n8 Jesus of Nazareth 

truth, but, if, as seems probable, John was baptizing in 
the part of the Jordan not far from Jericho when he 
baptized Jesus, it is not impossible that the tradition is 
true. The Arabs call the mountain Jebel Karantel. 
Karantel is an Arabic spelling of Quarantana, the me- 
diaeval form of the Latin word for forty. The name 
was given to the mountain in memory of the forty days 
of the temptation of Jesus. 

At the present time a Greek monastery is built into the 
rock about half way up the steep sides of the mountain. 
There it clings like a swallow's nest to a barn. From 
the top of the mountain one gains a magnificent view. 
The Jordan Valley and Dead Sea are spread out like a 
map. Beyond the broad stretch of the Jordan valley, 
the hills of Moab and Gilead rise, bold, rugged, and 
beautiful, while in the far north, visible above the many 
lesser peaks which intervene, snow-capped Hermon lifts 
its hoary head. It is a most appropriate retreat for such 
meditation as Jesus longed for at the moment. If, how- 
ever, it was really Jebel Karantel to which Jesus went 
after his baptism, he had little thought for the physical 
scene before him, even though his eyes rested on what is, 
geologically, one of the most marvelous works of God. 
Other and more momentous considerations filled his 
mind. 

Some modern scholars have expressed doubts as to the 
historical reality of the accounts of the temptation. They 
say that periods of temptation are attributed to the Per- 
sian prophet Zoroaster, to Gautama, the founder of Bud- 
dhism in India, and to many others. They would have 
us think that, because a period of temptation and doubt 
seems to be a necessary part of the biography of a saint, 
therefore the tradition of the temptation of Jesus grew 
up from nothing, so that the story of his life might con- 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 119 

form to the general type. The facts to which they refer 
are real facts, but their application of them exhibits a 
strange lack of insight. Zoroaster and Gautama, yes: 
all real saints of every religion have attained their saint- 
hood only by inner struggle. They have pushed beyond 
their fellows and have grasped new truth only because 
they doubted, struggled, and agonized. It is a law of 
life in this human world of ours that 

"The heart must bleed before it feels, 
The pool be troubled before it heals." 

If Jesus were a real man, of course his experience cor- 
responded to this universal human type. If he were only 
a saint, he could not reach sainthood by any other road. 
If he were Incarnate Son of God, and the incarnation 
were real, there was no other path, except the path of 
doubt and temptation for him to travel. These consid- 
erations, so far from throwing doubts on the historical 
character of the narratives of the temptation, are the 
strongest proof possible of their truth. 

To the wilderness Jesus hastened, deeply absorbed in 
thought. For a long time his mind was so occupied by 
thoughts of his high destiny and extraordinary duties, 
or so engaged in prayer and praise, that he forgot the 
demands of the body. At last he was awakened from 
intense absorption in thought by the rude demands of 
hunger. The fact that he could hunger startled him. 
It cast doubt on his whole conception of his new mis- 
sion. Could he really be the Messiah and be hungry? 
A Jewish apocalypse, written perhaps while Jesus was 
still on the earth, shows us the Jewish expectations re- 
garded the time of the coming of the Messiah as a time 
of great plenty. It says, when the Messiah begins to be 
revealed : "The earth will yield its fruits ten thousand 



120 Jesus of Nazareth 

fold, and on one vine there will be a thousand branches, 
and each branch will produce a thousand clusters, and 
each cluster will produce a thousand grapes, and each 
grape will produce a cor 1 of wine. And those who have 
hungered will rejoice." 2 With such conceptions con- 
nected with the coming of the Messiah, it is no wonder 
that Jesus' hunger made him doubt his Messiahship. If 
the Messiah was to bring in a plenty of which such things 
could be imagined, could he, who 1 was hungry and alone 
in a desolate wilderness, really be the Messiah? The 
real temptation was not the hunger. The real temptation 
lay in the doubt which hunger cast upon his new con- 
viction of what he was and what he was called to do. 
Those who claim that Jesus was tempted by appetite, as 
weak and gluttonous men are tempted, miss the point 
entirely. The temptation lay not in the appetite for 
food, which was natural and right, but in the doubts 
which that unsatisfied appetite, when considered against 
the background of the Messianic expectations, cast upon 
the trustworthiness of the voice of God which had so re- 
cently, at the waters of the Jordan, powerfully and con- 
vincingly spoken to his soul. 

Then there flashed into his mind the thought, "If thou 
be the Son of God, command that these stones become 
bread." Nothing is so abundant on the Palestinian hills 
as stones. As Messiah, Son of God, he ought, so men of 
that time thought, to be able to work any miracle. If he 
could by a word change stones into bread, he could eas- 
ily bring in the era of plenty which was expected. At 
this point he suddenly recalled the great words of the 
Book of Deuteronomy : 3 "Man doth not live by bread 

1 A cor contained about 49 gallons. 

2 Apocalypse of Baruch, 29 : 5, 6. 

3 Deut. 8 : 3. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 121 

only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 
of God, doth man live," and he realized afresh that the 
greatest need of mankind is not bread, urgent as the 
necessity for bread often is. The "words that proceed 
out of the mouth of God" represent God's will. They 
define the great ethical and spiritual laws of man's 
higher life. Obedience to these laws distinguishes men 
from animals. Abundance of food strengthens the ani- 
mal in man; doing the will of God develops his soul. 
The crying need of the world was then, and still is, a 
clearer perception of the will of God and greater power 
to do it. The times in which Jesus lived were sadly out 
of joint — not primarily for lack of food, but for lack of 
obedience to the will of God. 

Jesus thus perceived that the real test, as to whether 
the voice that had sounded in his soul, calling him the 
Son of God, spoke the truth or not, did not lie in his 
power to turn stones into bread and load men's tables 
with abundance, but in his power to do the will of God 
and to help others to do it. It was in accordance with 
the will of God that men should labor for bread ; the dis- 
cipline of that labor was a part of the Father's design 
for their education. He would not attempt to free him- 
self from that discipline ; he would not perform a miracle 
to relieve his hunger. But he was conscious that he 
could do the will of God. He felt able to help others to 
do it. Thus the doubt that hunger had cast on the gen- 
uineness of his Messianic call was dispelled and the na- 
ture of his Messianic mission had become clearer to him. 

No sooner had this struggle ended, however, than an- 
other was begun. The train of thought started by his 
hunger had brought him face to face with the problem 
of the kind of Messiah he would be, and upon that his 
thought dwelt. All his countrymen, not to say all Jews 



122 Jesus of Nazareth 

everywhere, expected the Messiah to come as an earthly 
king, who would establish a Jewish empire and make 
Jerusalem instead of Rome mistress of the world. He 
knew that, if he raised the standard of revolt against 
Rome thousands were ready to rally to it, and fling away 
their lives in the effort to set up that monarchy of which 
prophets had spoken, poets sung and apocalyptists writ- 
ten. The kingdoms of the world passed before his men- 
tal vision. For one brief moment, perhaps, the pomp 
and power of earthly dominion appealed even to him, 
then he energetically repelled the thought. 1 Empires 
were founded on force. Their rulers were descended 
from successful robber-barons. They were the supreme 
expression of the idea that bread or material possessions 
constitute man's supreme good. Such a monarch Jesus 
could not become. To do so would be to worship Satan. 
He energetically repelled the thought. He recalled other 
great words in Deuteronomy: 'Thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." 2 This he 
would do. As man's greatest need was to do the will 
of God, he would establish a kingdom in which God's 
will should be supreme. The dominion of this kingdom 
should rest on love, not on force; it should hold sway 
over the hearts of men by its power of attraction, and 
not over men's bodies through the power of fear. Its 
dominion should be achieved by love, applied through 
service and sacrifice, not by battles and bloodshed. Thus 
the solitary Nazarene put away forever the thought of 
becoming a military leader and establishing a monarchy 
like that of Rome or Parthia. He would take the slower 
and more lowly method of loving service, of friendliness 

1 Matthew and Luke place the second and third temptations in 
reverse order. Luke's order is here followed, as according best 
with psychological probability. 

2 Deut. 6:13. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 123 

to the poor, of preaching and healing. He would pre- 
sent in all its matchless beauty the will of God to men's 
minds, he would disclose God's love to their hungry 
hearts until, attracted away from sin and drawn out of 
selfishness, men should voluntarily yield themselves to 
the rule of God, and the kingdom of God would be 
established. Perhaps Jesus did not at the time fully real- 
ize it, but the choice which he made, owing to the hard- 
ness of men's hearts, and the power of self-interest, led 
straight to the Cross. 

Although in these two inward battles Jesus had deter- 
mined the kind of Messiah he would be, there came to 
him in his lonely meditation one other tempting thought. 
So human was he that for a moment the thought came to 
him that he might apply some outward test in order to 
prove that he was really the Messiah. The thought that 
came to his mind was that he might go up on one of the 
highest parts of the Temple in Jerusalem and cast him- 
self down, in order to see whether God would permit 
him to fall and be injured. A Psalm, familiar to him 
for many years, contained a promise addressed to one 
who put his trust in God. It may be translated as 
follows : 

"He will give his angels charge over thee, 
To keep thee in all thy ways. 
They shall bear thee up in their hands, 
Lest thou hurt thyself upon a stone." x 

If he were God's Son, he could not be permitted to fall. 
It would be an outward test. If to any of us the idea of 
this temptation seems at all grotesque, we must remem- 
ber that Jesus lived in the first century, not in the twen- 
1 Psalm 91:11 12. 



124 Jesus of Nazareth 

tieth. If, as we believe, he was God incarnate, he was 
incarnate as a man of the first century. He possessed a 
first century man's point of view; he would share in 
some degree a first century man's thoughts. 

Once more Jesus recalled some great words of Deuter- 
onomy, which would seem to have been one of his 
favorite books. This time the words were: "Ye shall 
not tempt the Lord your God." x In the languages of the 
Bible the words translated "tempt" mean "to make trial 
of" or "put to the test." The thought that had come to 
Jesus was that he should create an artificial situation so 
as to put God's word to him to the test — to compel God, 
if the voice at the Jordan had uttered the truth, to give 
him an outward proof of it. We do not put our friends 
to the test unless we have reason to doubt the sincerity 
of their friendship for us. Those who are always creat- 
ing artificial situations to compel their friends to show 
their regard for them are most uncomfortable compan- 
ions. They are not real friends. So Jesus saw that the 
thought that had come to him was in reality a doubt of 
God himself. He knew God. He could trust him as a 
Father. He would create no artificial situation to compel 
God to demonstrate the truth of that which the Father 
had spoken in his soul. He would go forward doing the 
great task to which God had called him and leave God 
to bless his trust with full outward proof in God's own 
way and time. 

Thus, alone with God, Jesus fought with his doubts 
and conquered them. He no longer wondered that he, a 
carpenter from an obscure village, should be called to 
this high service. The inner convictions of his soul and 
his knowledge of God guaranteed that. As he exam- 
ined himself he found depths in his nature which justi- 

i Deut. 6 : 16. 



The Life of Jesus Before His Ministry 125 

fied him in thinking that, whatever the reality of the ex- 
travagant apocalyptic language applied to the Messiah 
might mean, it was fulfilled in him. He now saw clearly 
that the apocalypses had sorely missed the point in their 
pictures of the Messianic kingdom. People who took 
those pictures literally were looking for happiness where 
it could not be found. It was his mission to disclose a 
higher and nobler kingdom — to lead his people and the 
world to a better happiness by leading them to the Father. 
So from the solitary wilderness of temptation he came 
forth to take up his sacred but superhuman task. 

The story of this solitary struggle in the wilderness lay 
for months locked in the breast of Jesus. It was not till 
shortly before his crucifixion that, at Cesarea Philippi, 
he disclosed to his disciples the fact that he was the ex- 
pected Messiah. It was then, we believe, that he drew 
aside a little the veil from his own inner life, and told 
the Disciples of the voice that had spoken to him at his 
baptism, of the doubts that had assailed him in the wil- 
derness, and of the sure conviction and deep peace with 
which he had emerged from that struggle. Naturally 
the story took on the form and coloring due to an Orien- 
tal, first century, Jewish setting. It is, however, the one 
bit of autobiography in the Gospels. 



BOOK III 
THE MINISTRY OF JESUS IN GALILEE 

Chapters XVII-XXXV 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE BEGINNING OF JESUS' MINISTRY 

(Mark i : 14-20; Matt. 4: 12-22; Luke 5 : 1-11 ; 
John 1 : 29-51.) 

FROM the lonely wilderness, where he had fought 
with doubts and conquered them, Jesus returned 
"in the power of the Spirit." He was full of 
courage and of zeal. He had adjusted himself to his 
new work ; his reliance on God was complete ; he saw his 
way before him. The mission that he had undertaken 
made it necessary for him to stop working as a carpenter, 
but this he did apparently with no hesitation. The needs 
of a Palestinian peasant are few and he could, as the 
birds do, trust in God. 

He first returned to the Jordan, where John was 
preaching, and began, apparently, also to preach to the 
crowds who thronged the banks of the Jordan to hear 
John. 1 To these throngs the burden of Jesus' teaching 
was : "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is 
at hand: repent ye and believe the good news." By say- 
ing "The time is fulfilled," he told them that the years, 
that their fathers had said must roll around before the 
coming of the Messiah, had already passed away. He 
implied that the Messiah would soon appear, for "the 

1 The Gospels differ radically in their statements concerning the 
beginnings of Jesus' ministry. It is not possible to harmonize them 
and scholars differ as to which one to follow. The writer gives in 
the text what seems to him the probable order of events, but no one 
can be sure of the right order. 

129 



130 Jesus of Nazareth 

kingdom of heaven was at hand." It was a message 
very similar to that of John the Baptist. 

While preaching at the Jordan Jesus became ac- 
quainted with two brothers whose home was in Caper- 
naum in Galilee. They were Simon and Andrew. A 
third man who had come there to hear the Baptist also 
listened to Jesus and was greatly impressed by him. He 
is supposed to have been John the son of Zebedee, though 
this is not certain. 

What conversations, if any, Jesus and John the Bap- 
tist may have had with each other, we do not know. The 
author of the Gospel of John believed that John the 
Baptist told some of his disciples that Jesus was the 
Messiah, but if the Baptist thought this now, he after- 
wards had doubts. 

The work on the banks of the Jordan did not last 
long. It was interrupted by Herod Antipas, tetrarch of 
Galilee and Persea, who arrested John the Baptist and 
threw him into prison. The cause of Herod's act was 
that John had denounced as sin Herod's marriage with 
Herodias, who was the wife of Antipas's half brother, 
Philip. She left Philip and married Antipas, and John 
the Baptist, endeavoring to purify the morals of the na- 
tion in preparation for the coming of the kingdom of 
God, had declared the marriage a sinful act. Herod ac- 
cordingly had John seized and thrown into a dungeon in 
the castle at Macherus among the rugged hills to the east 
of the Dead Sea, where, deeply indented by crooked val- 
leys, the broken edges of the land rise in steep cliffs 
toward the levels of the plains of Moab. 

The arrest of John dispersed the companies which he 
had drawn to the banks of the Jordan. It was at this 
time that Jesus himself returned to Galilee and began 
his preaching there. He did not return to Nazareth to 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 131 

live, but went to Capernaum, a town on the shore of the 
Sea of Galilee. The reasons that took him to Caper- 
naum were two. He had by the Jordan become ac- 
quainted with three men who lived there, men of whom 
he might later be able to make use in his work. There 
was also a more important reason. Capernaum was 
thronged with people; Nazareth was an insignificant 
place, and Jesus wished to reach people. This little lake, 
thirteen miles long and about eight miles at its greatest 
breadth, is said at that time to have had about it nine 
cities, each of which contained at least 15,000 inhabi- 
tants, and some of them more than this. The names of 
several of these are known to us. There were on the 
western shore Tiberias and Magdala; on the northern 
shore, Capernaum, Bethsaida, and perhaps Chorazin; 
Hippos, a little to the east of the Sea of Galilee, and 
Gadara, a few miles south of its southern end, were 
probably of the number. What the other two were has 
not yet been determined. 

A little time appears to have elapsed after Jesus left 
the Jordan before he reached the Sea of Galilee, for 
Simon and Andrew and John the son of Zebedee had had 
time to reach their homes and to engage in their ordi- 
nary work of fishing. What Jesus was doing in the 
meantime we do not know, but it is probable that he 
was preaching along the way to people whom he found 
at or near the towns through which he passed. We have 
no account of such preaching in our Gospels, for Peter, 
from whom the information in the Gospels comes, had 
not yet joined Jesus, and so knew no details concerning 
these days. 

It would seem that during this ministry Jesus, as at the 
Jordan, told the people in substance, "The time is ful- 
filled," and "the kingdom of heaven is at hand : repent 



132 Jesus of Nazareth 

ye, and believe the gospel." He did not tell them that 
he was the Messiah, for he knew that, if he did, they 
would expect him to lead a revolt against Rome, and, 
in the days of earnest thought in the wilderness, he had 
determined that he could not be true to God and be that 
kind of a Messiah. It was necessary for him to awaken 
their Messianic expectations, and then gradually lead 
them to share his more spiritual view of the kingdom of 
God. We know from later passages in the Gospels that, 
in order to do this, he called himself the "Son of Man." 
In the Aramaic language which was spoken in Galilee at 
the time and in which Jesus preached, the words "son of 
man" meant "human being," and would be understood 
by most hearers to mean that. "Son of Man" had, how- 
ever, been used in the Book of Enoch as a name for the 
Messiah. The term had in it, therefore, the possibility 
of suggesting to the thoughtful the idea that Jesus was 
the Messiah. He doubtless chose to use this term in re- 
ferring to himself, for a reason similar to the one that 
afterward led him to employ parables in his teaching. 
Those who "had ears to hear" might "hear" and under- 
stand. Meantime those who did not understand would 
form no false ideas of the kind of Messiah he was. It 
was thus that he began his work, the work of giving men 
a more real belief in God as Father, of making people 
feel that God loves them, of awakening men to the desire 
for a more perfect human society — a society in which 
the will of God shall be done — a kingdom in which God 
shall really rule. 

Going northward Jesus traveled up the shore of the 
Sea of Galilee, and early one morning came to a place 
near Capernaum where the fishermen, who had been out 
fishing all night, had come ashore with their fish for a 
market. People from the neighboring city had come out 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 133 

to buy, so that quite a crowd of fisher- folk and their cus- 
tomers was there. He began to speak to the multitude 
and his words seemed so striking and wonderful that 
people crowded about him until he could neither speak 
comfortably nor make himself heard. Then he saw 
nearby two boats, in which were his acquaintances made 
days before down by the Jordan, Simon and Andrew. 
Nearby was another boat in which were James and John 
with Zebedee their father. These men were not at the 
market, for they had had an unsuccessful night; they had 
caught no fish. They were washing and mending their 
nets. Jesus accordingly stepped into the boat of Simon 
and asked him to push out a little from the shore, so that 
the people on the bank could be seen, and then, sitting in 
the boat, he taught the multitude. Just what he said on 
this occasion is not recorded. 

When he had said what he wished to say to the people, 
he said to Simon, 'Tush out into deep water and let 
down your nets to catch some fish." Simon, who was 
also called Peter, said : "Rabbi, we have worked all night 
and have caught nothing, but at thy command I will let 
down the nets." To this day it is customary for fisher- 
men on the Sea of Galilee, when out in their boats fish- 
ing, to be guided by the directions of one who is on the 
shore. Often an observer on the shore can tell by the 
appearance of the water where the fish are, better than 
one who is out on the lake. Jesus was, however, not on 
the shore, but in the boat, so that his directions seemed 
remarkable. As Peter and Andrew did as Jesus di- 
rected, they caught in their nets such a great number of 
fishes that their nets began to break, and they beckoned 
to the sons of Zebedee, James and John, to come to their 
aid. Even then the draught of fishes was so great that 
both boats had difficulty in getting them ashore. 



134 Jesus of Nazareth 

Simon had been greatly impressed before by the 
preaching of Jesus, and this wonderful incident con- 
vinced him that Jesus was a holy man, possessed of di- 
vinely given insight, so he fell down at Jesus' knees, say- 
ing, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Sir." 
Peter still shared the feeling that many Hebrews had 
had in the times of the Old Testament that God was so 
holy that, if a sinful man came into too close contact 
with him, the man would be destroyed. Thus Peter felt 
that it was dangerous for him, a sinful man, to be so 
near one who possessed such divine insight. Jesus, how- 
ever, reassured him, and said : "Do not be afraid ; follow 
me, and I will make you fishers of men." As a result 
of this call, reenforced by this fishing experience, Peter 
and Andrew, James and John, after they reached the 
shore, became Disciples of Jesus. It seems that they did 
not give up the fishing business and devote their whole 
time to going with him until later, but they were his Dis- 
ciples and were often with him. However, for the time 
at least, they left their nets and boats, and James and 
John left their father and his fishing business, and all 
went on with Jesus into Capernaum. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A DAY IN CAPERNAUM 

(Mark 1:21-34; Matt. 8:14-17; Luke 4:31-34.) 

PROBABLY the events just related occurred late in 
the week, for the Gospel of Mark says, "They 
go into Capernaum : and straightway on the Sab- 
bath day he entered into the synagogue and taught." 
This teaching in the synagogue appears thus to have fol- 
lowed closely upon the call of the four Disciples, Peter, 
Andrew, James, and John. 

The order of services in the synagogue provided for 
an address or sermon after the lessons had been read 
from the Bible. It was customary, if a distinguished 
Jew from another town were present, to invite him to 
make the address. 1 Naturally, therefore, the opportunity 
to speak at the synagogue in Capernaum was offered to 
Jesus. By the shore of the lake he had already spoken 
to many in a way that marked him as an unusual teacher, 
and we may be sure that the four Disciples had not been 
slow to tell their neighbors of the great numbers of fish 
Jesus had helped them to catch. When, therefore, Jesus 
was seen in the synagogue on the Sabbath, every one 
would wish to hear him. ^ 

The Jews of Capernaum met in a fine synagogue 
which had been built for them by a Roman centurion, 2 an 
officer in the Roman army, who corresponded in a gen- 



1 See Chapter VI, p. 40. 

2 See Luke 7 : 5. 



135 



136 Jesus of Nazareth 

eral way to a captain in a modern army. He was a sort 
of half-convert to Judaism, of which there were quite a 
number at this period, who had forsaken polytheism, and 
embraced the worship of Israel's God, but who had not 
submitted to the observances of the ritual laws of Leviti- 
cus. The foundations and floor of this synagogue have 
been discovered by modern archaeologists. 

As Jesus spoke to these Jews on that Sabbath, they 
were astonished at his teaching, it was so different from 
that of any rabbi to whom they had ever listened. We 
must remember that these Jews believed that God had 
spoken to and inspired the writers of the Old Testament 
who lived long before, but that the age of inspiration had 
long passed. It was the duty of a rabbi to explain what 
the sacred text of the Old Testament meant, but to 
speak as though he had any authority was, for a rabbi, 
an unheard-of thing. The rabbis as a rule simply passed 
out to their hearers dry-as-dust and hair-splitting ex- 
planations or more or less interesting stories. We do 
not know on what subject Jesus spoke that day, but we 
do know what his method was. He spoke the living 
truth of God in such a way as to lay bare the needs of 
men's hearts; he spoke of God as though he knew some- 
thing of God; he appealed to his hearers to think for 
themselves, not to be bound by the past, but to dare to 
judge for themselves what was right. In comparison 
with the uninspiring addresses of the rabbis, the teach- 
ing of Jesus came like a breath of fresh air into a stifling 
room. No wonder the Jews in the synagogue were as- 
tonished at his teaching ! 

In the synagogue that day there was an insane man. 
At that period of the world's history, insane people were 
believed to have demons living in them. The demon 
was thought to get possession of the person, control his 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 137 

will, and speak through his voice. s Such is still the be- 
lief of the common people of Palestine. The writer, 
traveling with a party of Americans in Palestine, once 
came upon a group of men near the site of ancient 
Bethel, who were snouting and waving large clubs at a 
man in the center of the group. At an opportune mo- 
ment one of them dropped his club and, rushing up be- 
hind the central figure, caught his hands and tied them 
behind him. When the writer asked why the man in the 
center of the group was so treated, he was told that he 
was possessed of a demon. When such people became 
violent, they were beaten or tortured in some way in 
order to drive out the demon, and, if this did not work 
a cure, the victims were driven from human habitations. 
Such poor outcasts often lived in caves and tombs. 

The man who was in the synagogue of Capernaum 
that day must have been only mildly insane, or violent 
only at rare intervals, for the people did not cast him 
out, but let him stay in the congregation. As he listened 
to the words of Jesus, he was deeply stirred. Like Peter 
the day before on the lake, he felt himself to be sinful, 
and he felt uncomfortable in the presence of one who 
was evidently so pure and holy as Jesus. He accordingly 
cried out in the presence of the whole congregation : 
"What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Nazarene? 
Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou 
art, the Holy One of God." Apparently the perceptions 
of his disordered mind were in some way so quickened 
that he felt that Jesus must be the Messiah. 

We do not know whether Jesus shared the beliefs of 
those about him as to demon-possession or not. It may 
be that he did, for, if, as Christians believe, he was God 
incarnate, he was incarnated as a man of the first cen- 
tury and not as a man of the twentieth century. It is 



138 Jesus of Nazareth 

possible, of course, that he accommodated himself to 
the thought and language of the people about him, be- 
cause it was more important for him to teach them to 
do the will of God than to explain the nature of mental 
disease. It is also possible, as some investigators of 
psychical experiences believe, that people are sometimes 
taken possession of by the spirits of bad men, though 
this seems improbable. Whatever the reason may have 
been, he addressed the man as though the demon in him 
were real and he was speaking to it. He said : "Be si- 
lent, and come out of him!" The man uttered a loud 
cry and was restored to sanity. The word of Jesus and 
the healing influence that had gone out from his per- 
sonality restored the man's mental balance. The congre- 
gation in the synagogue were amazed. The authority of 
the new teacher was indeed real. He not only spoke of 
the things of God as though he knew as well as the men 
of old knew, but even the demons recognized his author- 
ity and obeyed him ! No wonder that they regarded him 
with reverence. His fame spread immediately. 

When the service was over, Jesus with his four Dis- 
ciples, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, went to the 
house of Simon and Andrew, which was in Capernaum 
not far from the synagogue. These brothers were both 
young men. Simon, who, it will be remembered, was 
also called Peter, was married, but whether Andrew was, 
we are not told. The name of the father of Simon and 
Andrew was Jonah. Probably he had already died, for 
the house was called that of Simon and Andrew. Pos- 
sibly the mother of these brothers was also dead, for they 
were living with the family of Simon's wife. It seems 
probable that Peter and Andrew were orphans and that, 
when Peter had married, they went, contrary to custom, 
to live in his bride's family. 



The Ministry of Jesus in Ga'i'cc 139 

Be this as it may. they were living there, and. on this 
memorable Sabbath, they took Jesus home with them 
from the synagogue :: the Sabbath dinner. Peter's 
mother-in-law was ill and lying on one of the rug beds 
in a corner of the common room of the humble home. 
Just what the nature of her ailment was we do not know. 
All that we know is that she had what modern doctors 
would call a "temperature." Jesus went and took her 
by the hand, after they had told him about her. and 
raised her up. and, from his calm, wholesome person- 
ality-, which radiated health, hope, courage, faith, there 
went out to her healing. Her temperature dropped to 
normal : she felt well : she arose and helped in serving the 
midday meal. 

In Oriental cities the houses are crowded one against 
the other. People live a good deal on the roofs and in 
the streets. This second wonderful cure, occurring on 
the same day as the curing of the lunatic, was soon 
known throughout the little town. Xews of it went from 
mouth to mouth, and great exci:e::;e:;: resulted. It is 
almost imposs::ie for one, reared in a family that has 
always lived where a doctor could be called in for every 
ailment, to realize what it means to live where skillful 
physicians are unknown. One has to travel in remote 
parts of countries like Palestine and get the reputation 
of being a physician, in :rier to understand it. People 
will eagerly rlock to him with even- ill that flesh is heir 
to: they will ask him to come and see re:;ie suffering 
from tumors, from paralysis, cancer, tuberculosis, lep- 
rosy: they will bring him deformed limbs and backs: 
his eyes will look upon a degree of suffering that would 
move a heart of stone. Such a traveler can understand 
why Capernaum was s: srirred that Sabbath day long 



140 Jesus of Nazareth 

The people of Capernaum were, however, good Jews. 
They would not break the Sabbath. They had in their 
families many too crippled or too ill to go to Peter's 
house, but they would not carry them thither on the Sab- 
bath. The Sabbath ended, however, at sundown, when, 
according to their accounting of time, the first day of the 
next week began. As soon, therefore, as the sun had set, 
they brought to Jesus all their sick, their crippled, and 
their insane, until it seemed as though the whole city had 
gathered before Peter's door. Their agony and their 
simple faith touched the heart of Jesus; he went out and 
mingled with the throng. 

There has been in modern times much discussion of 
faith healing. Some have ignorantly maintained that it 
was the only right way to be healed ; others have doubted 
whether real cures could be wrought that way. Intelli- 
gent experiments prove, however, that certain ills can be 
cured not only by faith, but by the confident expectation 
awakened by so-called magnetic personalities. Another 
large class of diseases are greatly helped by such faith 
and expectation. Since this is true of ordinary magnetic 
persons, it would be folly to doubt that Jesus could heal 
in this way. Every thing that we know of him confirms 
our belief that he could. There are some diseases that 
do not yield to such treatment. Faith does not set 
broken bones, nor do magnetic personalities make new 
limbs grow from the stumps of lost ones. Healing by 
faith and touch is real, but it has its limits. 

The Gospel of Mark, based as it was on the testimony 
of Peter before whose house this crowd had gathered, 
says: "And he [Jesus] healed many that were sick with 
divers diseases, and cast out many demons." This testi- 
mony of an eye-witness is credible from any point of 
view. It undoubtedly represents the real facts, Jesus 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 141 

moved through the throng. He spoke to them, he laid 
his hands on them, he gave them his sympathy, his love, 
his help. He healed all such as, under the limits of 
God's laws — limits which, though less circumscribed for 
him than for others, existed even for him — he could 
heal. Many went away healed and sane who had come 
with diseased bodies and disordered minds. All went 
away cheered by contact with his kindly love. 

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke, written at a later 
time, tell the story with a very natural exaggeration. 
One says, "He healed all that were sick" ; the other, "He 
laid his hands on every one of them and healed them." 
Such a heightening of the element of wonder in the clos- 
ing incidents of this memorable day was, as time passed, 
inevitable. It is remarkable that Peter should, in spite 
of the excitement of these marvelous experiences have 
passed on to subsequent ages an account of it so simple 
and restrained that its details are all credible to a scien- 
tific student of the twentieth century. 



CHAPTER XIX 

A TOUR THROUGH GALILEE 

(Mark 1 : 35-45 ; Matt. 4 : 23 ; 8:1-4; Luke 4 : 42 ; 
5 : 12-16; John 2 : 1-11.) 

THAT Sabbath day in Capernaum had drawn heav- 
ily upon Jesus' store of strength. To give one's 
sympathy, love, and healing-touch leaves the 
body more weary than physical labor does. In addition 
there is the drain on the spiritual life. After such an ex- 
perience Jesus wished to be alone with God. He would 
refill the stores of power at the Infinite Reservoir of life. 
In the early hours of the following morning, therefore, 
while the other inmates of Peter's house were all asleep, 
he arose and went quietly away, out of the city, up to 
some of the recesses in the hills. There in prayer he re- 
freshed his soul, and renewed his life. 

When the people of Capernaum awoke on that Sun- 
day morning, the great events of the day before were in 
every one's thoughts. Many thronged Peter's house to 
see again the wonderful healer. No doubt some also 
brought their sick, thinking that to-day his touch might 
heal them. Peter and Andrew could only tell the people 
that Jesus was not there. Thinking that Jesus was miss- 
ing a great opportunity to advance his work, Peter, An- 
drew, James, and John tracked Jesus to his retreat and 
said, "Everybody is seeking thee." Jesus replied: "Let 
us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, 
for I came for this very purpose." He and they, accord- 

142 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 143 

ingly, started on a tour through Galilee. This tour must 
have lasted for some weeks, for Mark tells us, "He went 
into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching 
and casting out demons." The Gospels have not pre- 
served for us many details of the events of this journey. 

It seems probable that the wedding at Cana of Galilee, 
mentioned in the second chapter of the Gospel of John, 
to which Jesus and his Disciples were invited, occurred 
during this preaching tour. The Gospel of John, it is 
true, places it earlier, but that Gospel allows no room for 
the temptation of Jesus, and there are other grounds for 
departing from its chronology. Weddings in ancient 
Palestine were quite different from such ceremonies 
among us. The bridegroom in gay attire, accompanied 
by his friends, went toward evening to the house of the 
bride. Upon their arrival they were joined by the bride 
and her friends, all, of course, in their festal garments, 
and the procession returned to the house of the bride- 
groom's parents to the accompaniment of music, songs, 
and dancing. In some cases, though this seems to have 
been rare, the bridal procession set out from the home 
of the bride's parents to meet the bridegroom and his 
friends on the way, and then all returned to his parents' 
home. After they had all reached the home of the par- 
ents of the bridegroom, the wedding feast was celebrated 
there. 

Cana of Galilee is supposed to have been the same as 
the modern Kefr Kenna, five or six miles north of Naz- 
areth, and Jesus, his mother, and his disciples are said 
to have been invited to the wedding. The Gospel of 
John, the only one of the Gospels which mentions this 
wedding at all, tells us that, when the wine gave out be- 
cause of the number of the guests, Jesus, in order that 
the festivities of his friends might not be interrupted, 



144 Jesus of Nazareth 

miraculously turned some water into wine. This is one 
of the nature-miracles which it is hard for many modern 
people to believe. The subject has already been treated 
in a previous chapter. 1 It is not necessary to repeat what 
has already been said. Even though the details of this 
account, written seventy years after the event, cannot at 
present be scientifically explained it is altogether like 
Jesus to be present at a wedding, and to mingle with peo- 
ple in their innocent pleasures. Just as he relieved their 
pain, cured their sicknesses, and drove away their igno- 
rance by his wonderful teaching, so he accepted their in- 
vitations to dinner and to weddings, and shared their 
joys. 

Sometimes among the rich the wedding festivities con- 
tinued for a week, and, on rare occasions, for two weeks. 
The expense of such prolonged festivals was great, and 
could not be met by the poor. They usually contented 
themselves with one night of feasting. Doubtless the 
friends of Jesus at Cana were poor, and the wedding 
probably was soon over. 

Another incident that was certainly connected with 
this preaching tour of Galilee was the cleansing of a 
leper, but we are not told in what part of Galilee it hap- 
pened. According to the Levitical law, the Jews re- 
garded skin diseases, which caused the skin to become 
reddish white or white, as leprosy as well as that more 
terrible disease which to-day passes under that name. 
Real leprosy is a terrible disease. It gradually unjoints 
the fingers and even larger joints of the body. Modern 
medicine is only now learning to control and cure it. 
Along with this true leprosy the Jews put ring-worm and 
a skin disease called vitiligo, in which parts of the skin 
become white. 

i See Chapter V, p. 32 ff. 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 145 

Any person afflicted with any of these was counted 
''unclean" ; they could not go into the synagogue. What- 
ever they touched became "unclean." They accordingly 
had to live apart from their families. When they ap- 
proached any one on the street, they had to cry, "Un- 
clean ! unclean !" and no one would draw near to them. 
The skin diseases might cause but slight suffering, but 
the uncleanness resulting upset one's whole life. 

The skin diseases often got well. The Levitical law 
accordingly recognized that they might pass away, and 
made elaborate provision for successive inspections of 
the affected spot by the priests to see if the disease was 
cured. In case it vanished, the law prescribed that the 
man who had recovered should offer certain sacrifices, 
shave his head, bathe, and remain after that outside his 
dwelling for seven days, after which he could return 
home. Among the Jews of the time of Jesus people did 
not distinguish between the light skin diseases mentioned 
and the more terrible leprosy. It was to them one ter- 
rible disease. Every form of it made one unclean, it 
banished one from home, it sundered all ties, it made 
one an outcast. Then there was the haunting terror, as 
soon as the reddish-white spots appeared, that little by 
little the sickness might proceed to eat away one's hands 
and feet. So all that was called leprosy struck terror to 
the heart. It tore its victim from home and threw him 
into exile ; it threatened a slow, painful, and horrible 
death. 

The man who came to Jesus for healing during this 
tour of Galilee probably had one of the skin diseases 
which were counted as leprosy, but he had begun to 
suffer the social ostracism that leprosy imposed, and his 
soul was filled with the unspeakable horror that the pos- 
sibilities of leprosy produced. As he heard of the won- 



146 Jesus of Nazareth 

derful healer at whose word or touch so many illnesses 
had vanished, he came and kneeling before Jesus, be- 
sought him to help him. "If thou only wilt, thou canst 
make me clean," he said. From his heart Jesus pitied 
him. He put out his hand and touched him saying, "I 
will; be thou clean." As a result of the faith and ex- 
pectation of the man combined with the magnetic and 
life-giving touch of Jesus, the physical defects in the 
man were rectified, currents of healthy life began to 
flow more abundantly in his veins, and he was speedily 
cured. 1 

The reputation of Jesus as a healer had greatly stirred 
the public mind. Already people so thronged him to be 
cured of sickness that opportunities to teach came to 
him less often. Jesus therefore told the man whom he 
had cured of leprosy not to say anything of his cure, but 
to go quietly to the priests and make the offerings con- 
nected with the putting away of his ceremonial impurity 
which the law required. The man thereupon left Jesus, 
but the restraint Jesus had put upon him was too great 
for his ardent nature. Everywhere he went he told peo- 
ple of the wonderful cure Jesus had so miraculously per- 
formed. The fame of it spread like fire, with the re- 
sult that Jesus could only approach the towns incognito. 
If people recognized him in a city, the crowd became un- 
bearable. So for a time Jesus remained out in the open 
country and people came from every direction to hear 
him and to be healed by him. 

1 The word "straightway" in the Gospel does not mean that in- 
stantaneously there was entire recovery, but that recovery was 
rapid. 



CHAPTER XX 

BY THE SEA OF GALILEE AGAIN 

(Mark 2:1-17; Matt. 9:1-13; Luke 5:27-32.) 

FROM this tour through Galilee Jesus, after a time, 
returned to Capernaum, and rumor soon informed 
the dwellers in the city that he had come home, 
for so we might render the Greek of Mark. We are 
probably to understand that he had returned to the house 
of Peter and Andrew, whose house in Capernaum would, 
under all the circumstances, naturally be, when he was 
there, his home. The recollection of the memorable day, 
when he had healed so many of them, was vivid in their 
minds, so a considerable company of the people of Caper- 
naum collected before the house, and Jesus, coming to 
the door of the house, began to address them. As he 
spoke the people sat down on the ground or squatted in 
the street, as people in Palestine may still be seen doing. 
There were some in Capernaum who were not so much 
interested in Jesus' teaching as in his power to heal. 
Some of these had a friend who was partially paralyzed, 
and four of them brought him on a mattress or rug, hop- 
ing to bring him into the presence of Jesus. When they 
found the street blocked by the crowd so that they could 
not get near, they went around another way, got up to 
the roof of one of the neighboring houses, came over to 
the roof of the house where Jesus was, dug up the packed 
earth of which the roof was chiefly made, made an open- 
ing between the poles which had supported the packed 

147 



148 Jesus of Nazareth 

earth, and let the rug, man and all, down just behind 
Jesus. The eagerness with which they did it, and the 
determination to overcome all difficulties which they 
manifested, touched Jesus. He saw in it evidence of 
great faith — faith both of those who brought their friend 
and of the friend who permitted himself to be brought, 
and turning to the sick man he said, "Son, be of good 
cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." 

Why Jesus said this to this man has greatly puzzled 
scholars. There was in ancient Israel a belief that all 
sickness and misfortune were due to sin and were sent 
as a punishment for sin. The theory was so untrue, 
however, to all the facts of life, that the book of Job had 
been written, centuries before the time of Jesus, to com- 
bat it. Doubtless many Jews still believed it in spite of 
Job, but did Jesus share this belief? Of course it is pos- 
sible that, as a man of the first century, he did, but it 
hardly seems probable, for this is the only instance in 
which he addressed a sick person in this way, and he 
once rebuked people for thinking that calamity was sent 
as a punishment for sins (see Luke 13:4). Possibly 
Jesus had known something of the man before and knew 
that his sickness had been caused by sin, or possibly it 
was because as he looked at the man he read, with that 
power of insight which led a later writer to say of him 
"he knew what was in man," the story of the man's sin 
in his face or in his thought. 

Be this as it may, he said to the paralytic, "Son, thy 
sins are forgiven thee." Squatting with the crowd be- 
fore the door and listening to him were some scribes — 
Pharisees who were experts in copying and interpreting 
the law. These men fully believed that God forgives 
sin, but they were shocked to hear a man say to a sin- 
ner, and of specific sins, "God has forgiven thee." They 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 149 

murmured, ''Blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins, 
and only God knows whether they are forgiven." Jesus 
turning to them said, "Why do you think thus? It is 
just as easy for a man to say Thy sins are forgiven,' 
as to say to a sick man, 'Arise and take up thy bed and 
walk/ but you shall see that the Son of Man has author- 
ity to pronounce sins forgiven." Then turning to the 
paralyzed man he said to him, "Arise, take up thy bed 
and go to thy house." Thereupon the man got up, took 
up the mattress or rug on which they had brought him, 
and walked off. Naturally the people were amazed, and 
praised God that such a wonderful man had come among 
them. Thev said, "We never saw anything like this be- 
fore!" 

It should be noted that Jesus here applied to himself 
the term "Son of Man." It has been already pointed out 
that most people who heard him would think that the 
term meant "human being," but it might also suggest to 
some the possibility that he was the Messiah. 

After this Jesus went out of the city to the sea-shore, 
many followed him, and he taught them. As he was 
walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee on the road 
from the Mediterranean to Damascus, which passed 
through Capernaum, he came to a toll-place, where sat a 
Jew, called sometimes Matthew and sometimes Levi, col- 
lecting export taxes. Such tax-collectors were called 
"publicans," from a Latin word which signified origi- 
nally that one was a member of one of the great com- 
panies or firms which managed the collecting of the 
taxes. Matthew was called a publican, but in all proba- 
bility he was not a member of such a company, but only 
an employee of it. 

Publicans were very unpopular everywhere, and espe- 
cially among the Jews. The companies which undertook 



150 Jesus of Nazareth 

tax-collecting had to pay over to the government a cer- 
tain sum and made their profits on what they could col- 
lect in excess of that sum. When the government was 
lax, people were sometimes compelled to pay the taxes as 
many as three times in one year. In Judaea the taxes were 
collected under the general oversight of the Roman gov- 
ernor, called the procurator ; in Galilee, under that of the 
tetrarch, Herod Antipas. The system followed was that 
just described and was called tax- farming. A company 
took the job of collecting the taxes. The taxes collected 
on the road near Capernaum were taxes on exports, and, 
as these were what are called ad valorem duties, i.e., 
taxes collected on the value of the goods, and there might 
always be a difference of opinion as to the valuation, the 
tax-collector there had an excellent opportunity to do 
many injustices. If, however, he were ever so fair in his 
valuations, he was sure to incur the ill will of many who 
wished to avoid the taxes altogether. 

The Jews especially disliked tax-collectors. Palestine 
was subject to Rome, and Herod Antipas, although a 
Jew in name, collected taxes for the Roman government, 
whose creature he was. Accordingly a Jew who became 
a publican was regarded as in some sense a traitor to 
his people. He wrung from them their hard-earned 
money to pay it to hated foreigners. Jews who had a 
high regard for the respect of their brethren would not, 
therefore, become tax-collectors, and Jews who prided 
themselves on being religious and respectable classed 
publicans with sinners and immoral people. Probably 
the fact that they were so shunned kept all but the bolder 
and often the less piously minded Jews from this means 
of obtaining a living. 

As Jesus passed by Matthew's custom-house, however, 
he stopped and invited Matthew to join him and become 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 151 

one of his intimate Disciples. Whether Jesus had before 
known Matthew personally we do not know ; perhaps he 
called him because of a sudden impulse as he read aright 
his character. Be this as it may, Matthew left his profit- 
able business, no doubt at great financial sacrifice, and 
followed Jesus. His whole career afterward justified 
Jesus' faith in him. Publicans usually became very 
wealthy. Probably Matthew, who was doubtless only a 
subordinate official, had not amassed any great fortune, 
and yet, in comparison with Jesus or with Peter, An- 
drew, James, and John, he was probably rich. Having 
responded to Jesus' call, Matthew invited Jesus home to 
dinner. Doubtless he had not only heard of Jesus be- 
fore, but had heard him preach. In all probability Mat- 
thew had been in the synagogue in Capernaum on the 
Sabbath some weeks before, when Jesus healed the in- 
sane man. He had since been thinking of God and the 
kingdom of God, and, when Jesus stopped and invited 
him, a despised publican, to join the inner circle of his 
intimate companions, he was quite ready to do so. More 
than this, he was glad of an opportunity to introduce to 
this wonderful friend, who was so good, who could say 
such beautiful things about God and life, and who could 
work such wonderful cures, some of his own friends. 
He accordingly took Jesus home with him and asked 
these friends to follow. Matthew's family supplied a 
meal and they all sat down to eat it, Jesus in the place 
of honor among them. 

None of Matthew's friends were in good standing 
with the Jews. They were all called sinners. This does 
not necessarily mean that they were all immoral; it only 
means that they were careless about the niceties of ob- 
serving the Jewish law. There may have been among 
them some immoral people, as the Pharisees believed, but 



152 Jesus of Nazareth 

no doubt many of them were no more immoral than a 
modern man who plays golf on Sunday. He would be 
better off in church, but he should not be classed with 
thieves or drunkards. As it was Jesus' aim to bring 
everybody to his Father, he was glad of an opportunity 
to meet these people. He sat among them naturally; he 
ate and conversed with them; he treated them like hu- 
man beings — like children whom God loved. 

There is little privacy in the East. Either Matthew's 
door was open, or the company was so large that the 
feast had to be spread outside the house, for, as some 
Pharisees passed by, they spied Jesus in this company, 
and were horrified. Here was this teacher, who was 
turning the heads of the multitudes by his strange talk 
and wonderful cures, actually eating in the house of a 
publican with people who did not before a meal give 
their hands the ceremonial washing which the law re- 
quired, who did not regularly attend the synagogue, and 
some of whom were, perhaps, Gentiles. So they stopped 
to inquire about it. 

The Disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, were 
apparently sitting on the outskirts of the company, who 
were, like all groups of Palestinian peasants, squatting 
about one or more dishes from which they were eating 
in common. The Pharisees asked these Disciples how it 
was that their master ate in such a company of publicans 
and sinners (the Jews called all Gentiles "sinners"). 
Jesus, hearing the question, did not wait for the Disciples 
to reply, but said to them in substance : "They that are 
well have no need of a doctor, but they that are sick : I 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE FIRST PASSOVER SEASON OF JESUS' MINISTRY 

(Mark 2:18-28; Matt. 9:14-17; 12:1-8; Luke 
5:33-39; 6:1-5.) 

AFTER telling of the events mentioned in the last 
chapter, the Gospel of Mark goes on to relate 
two incidents that were apparently connected with 
two spring festivals of the Jews, although the festivals 
themselves are not mentioned by the Evangelist. These 
are the discussion about fasting connected with the fes- 
tival of Purim, and the plucking of ears of corn on the 
Sabbath connected with the feast of the Passover. These 
events occurred, if we are not mistaken in our dates, in 
March and April of the year 29 A.D. 

The feast of Purim was celebrated on the 14th and 
15th of Adar, a month which corresponded to parts of 
our February and March. It was in the time of Christ 
a festival that had not been observed by Palestinian 
Jews for more than a hundred or a hundred and fifty 
years. They began about 160 B.C. to celebrate "Nican- 
or's Day" on the 13th of Adar. It commemorated the 
day when Judas Maccabaeus had in 161 B.C. conquered 
and slain the Syrian general Nicanor, who had threat- 
ened to destroy the Temple. It would seem that mean- 
time the Jews in Babylonia had begun to celebrate a 
spring festival that they called Purim, the origin of 
which is obscure, but which the traditions of the Book 
of Esther (written about 100 B.C.) connect with a de- 

153 



154 Jesus of Nazareth 

liverance of the Jews from massacre by the heroic plead- 
ing of Queen Esther. In later Judaism the feast of 
Purim displaced the festival of Nicanor's Day. It is 
probable that in the time of Christ the two were observed 
together. More or less loosely connected with Purim 
was the "Fast of Esther," which in time came to be ob- 
served on the 13th of Adar. Probably in the time of 
Jesus it came later in the month and so nearer to the 
time of the Passover. However this may be, it was, we 
believe, this important and generally observed fast that 
gave rise to the discussion which Mark relates. 

The conversation in question was this: some disciples 
of John the Baptist and some Pharisees were fasting and 
they noticed that the Disciples of Jesus ate as usual. The 
Pharisees accordingly asked Jesus why he and his Dis- 
ciples did not also fast. Fasting is a very old and wide- 
spread religious custom; it forms a part of the religious 
discipline of many of the heathen religions. Its origin 
is hidden in the darkness that surrounds the beginnings 
of many things. Many theories have been proposed to 
explain it. By whatever theory fasting is explained, 
however, it has to do primarily with material things. 
While of spiritual value to some, it is, if carried to an 
extreme, of very doubtful value to the soul. Jesus had 
discarded it as an aid to spiritual discipline. He could 
not, however, hope to make the Pharisees understand 
this, and to attempt it might so arouse their hostility as 
to seriously interfere with his work. He therefore used 
a figurative expression that was a kind of parable. "Can 
the wedding guests fast," he said, "while the bridegroom 
is with them?" Weddings were always times of festiv- 
ity, and it was a recognized rule of Jewish practice that 
brides, bridegrooms, and their friends who took part 
in the wedding were free from the obligation to fast. It 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 155 

was therefore this freedom which Jesus claimed for him- 
self and his Disciples. But in what sense did he call him- 
self and the Disciples wedding guests? The answer to 
this we can only guess. The prophets Hosea and Ezekiel 
had spoken of God's covenant with Israel as a marriage- 
covenant. Perhaps Jesus meant to suggest that he had 
come to establish a new covenant, and so figuratively 
claimed for his work the privileges of a wedding. What- 
ever his meaning, it would seem to have been as obscure 
to the Pharisees as it is to us. If, however, they pursued 
the conversation further, it was not reported by Peter 
when he told Mark about it. 

In speaking to the Pharisees about fasting Jesus pur- 
sued the subject further. He said, in substance, men 
do not patch old garments with new cloth. The new 
cloth would be so much more firm than the old that in 
the strain of being worn the new would tear the old and 
make the hole in it larger. Neither do men put new 
wine into old wine-skins. If they did, the fermentation 
of the wine would burst the old and worn wine-skin and 
the wine would be lost. They put new wine into new 
wine-skins. All through Palestine even to the present 
time they use bottles made of the skins of animals, and, 
of course, a new bottle is much stronger than one that 
has been rotted by holding liquid for a long time. 

By these illustrations Jesus sought to teach that he 
would impart a new spirit to religion and that this new 
spirit demanded for its best expression new forms of 
devotion. 

At the middle of the month Nisan (March- April) the 
Jewish Passover occurred. As the Law required all 
Jews to attend it, it is probable that Jesus and his five 
Disciples went to Jerusalem to celebrate it. Indeed, if, 
as seems probable, the disciples of John the Baptist were 



156 Jesus of Nazareth 

still lingering by the Jordan and carrying on in some de- 
gree the work of their master, and if, as also seems prob- 
able, the fasting in commemoration of Esther was at this 
period observed toward the end of the month Adar, 
Jesus and his Disciples may have been journeying slowly 
toward Jerusalem when the discussion about fasting was 
started by the Pharisees. We assume that this was the 
case. 

No details of the visit of Jesus to Jerusalem at the 
time of this Passover have been preserved. We only 
have the record of an event which happened on their 
journey from Jerusalem back to Galilee. On a Sabbath 
day they were passing through a field of ripened grain. 
We know the Passover had passed, for grain was not 
ripe till after that feast. There are few real roads in 
Palestine — only narrow paths. Land-owners plow and 
sow up to the very edges of these paths. When the grain 
grows tall and luxuriantly, as it does in the Jordan val- 
ley, the stalks lean over the pathway and sweep the feet 
of the traveler who rides through on horseback, and the 
knees of one who rides a donkey. Perhaps on this par- 
ticular Sabbath Jesus and the Disciples were simply tak- 
ing a short walk for exercise, since the Law prohibited 
traveling on the Sabbath. The Oral Law interpreted this 
to mean that one could go 2,000 cubits (about 1,000 
yards) on either side of the city in which he lived. This 
permitted walks for exercise. 

On this particular day Jesus and his Disciples were 
walking through a field of ripe grain, and his Disciples, 
being hungry, plucked some of the ears, rubbed them in 
their hands to separate the kernels from their covering, 
and ate them. The Pharisees were shocked by this, and 
asked Jesus why his Disciples were doing that which it 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 157 

was not lawful to do on the Sabbath Day. What the 
Pharisees regarded as unlawful was not the fact that the 
Disciples took some ears of another man's grain. That 
the Law did not regard as stealing. It permitted a per- 
son in going through another's field or orchard to pluck 
what he wished to eat. The Oral Law, however, inter- 
preted the plucking of ears of grain as reaping, and reap- 
ing was work. Rubbing the ears in their hands was 
threshing; and threshing was work. The fourth Com- 
mandment forbade the doing of work on the Sabbath. 
Thus an act that would have been innocent on a week day, 
they regarded as a sin. 

It would seem that on this particular Sabbath Jesus 
and the Disciples had not sufficient food with them. 
They were poor peasants, they had been some time from 
home, and no one had offered them hospitality. The 
plucking of the grain was not, therefore, a matter of 
mere pleasure, but a matter of necessity. They were 
really hungry. Jesus therefore turning, asked the Phari- 
sees if they had never read what David did when he was 
hungry, and they that were with him; how he entered 
into the house of God and ate the shewbread, which it 
is only lawful for priests to eat, and gave some of it, too, 
to them that were with him. 

David was, of course, a great saint in the eyes of the 
Pharisees. So by citing his example Jesus put them to 
silence. Then he concluded the discussion by stating this 
great principle : "The sabbath was made for man and not 
man for the sabbath : so that the Son of man is lord even 
of the sabbath. " In these words Jesus set forth one of 
the great principles of his religion. He taught that re- 
ligious institutions and rules are subordinate to human 
welfare. They are intended to minister to the well-being 



158 Jesus of Nazareth 

of men, but if a time comes when they interfere with 
that well-being, they are to be disregarded. They are 
sacred only so long as they contribute to the welfare 
and improvement of the bodies and the souls of men. 
If a time comes when they starve the body or stunt the 
growth of the soul, they must be revised or given up. 



CHAPTER XXII 

JESUS AGAIN IN CAPERNAUM 

(Mark 3 : 1-12 ; Matt. 12 : 9-21 ; Luke 6 : 6-19.) 

BY the next Sabbath Jesus and his Disciples were 
back in Capernaum again, and went to the syna- 
gogue as usual. The Pharisees who had been 
scandalized the week before by the plucking of the ears 
of corn were there also. Their home was in Capernaum ; 
they had been fellow-travelers with Jesus and his Disci- 
ples when the incident occurred. 

In the synagogue that day there was a man with a 
withered hand, and the Pharisees watched Jesus to see 
whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day. They 
had not forgotten the words of Jesus spoken a week be- 
fore. The great principle which Jesus had laid down 
seemed to them to destroy religion. In thinking thus 
they were no worse than many modern Christians. Men 
of every faith sometimes lose the substance both of re- 
ligion and ethics in their eagerness to keep up time-hon- 
ored rules and forms. 

According to the rabbinic rules, not all healing was 
wrong on the Sabbath. One might give medicine or 
bind up wounds in order to save life, if the omission 
would probably result in death, but any specific attention 
to a chronic disease on the Sabbath was regarded as 
breaking the fourth Commandment. The principle may 
be regarded as too strict an interpretation of the Sabbath 
law, but it is a fairly sensible one on the whole. In ap- 

159 



160 Jesus of Nazareth 

plying it in detail, however, the rabbis fell into difficulties 
and they solved their difficulties in ways that sometimes 
seem amusing. For example, a person suffering with 
toothache might dip a morsel of food in vinegar and 
apply it to the teeth, but it was forbidden him to gargle 
his mouth with vinegar. Later, however, the rabbis 
ruled that he might gargle, if, when he had finished, he 
swallowed the vinegar ! 

It is easy to picture the scene in the synagogue. Jesus, 
having read and explained the lesson, was in a prominent 
position before the congregation. Perhaps the man with 
the withered hand was also in a conspicuous place, so 
that, as Jesus went out of the synagogue, he might at- 
tract his attention. Eagerly watching both were the 
dark faces of the Pharisees, as they waited to see whether 
the famous teacher would again and more publicly pro- 
claim himself a heretic. Jesus understood their purpose, 
and asked the man to stand up before them. The serv- 
ices of the synagogue always had a degree of informality 
about them, so that no scandal was created by giving 
them this turn. Jesus then, addressing the Pharisees, 
said : "What man shall there be of you, that shall have 
one sheep, and if this fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, 
will he not lay hold on it and lift it out?" The Oral law 
provided that in such cases food might be let down to the 
sheep but that it should not be lifted out till the Sabbath 
was over. Jesus knew, however, that when their property 
was endangered in this way, these Pharisees found ways 
of getting around the law. The Pharisees knew it too, 
and were silent. Jesus continued : "How much then is a 
man better than a sheep! Is it lawful to do good on the 
Sabbath day, or to do harm? To save life, or to kill?" 
Still the Pharisees were silent. 

Jesus then, we are told, "looked about on them with 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 161 

anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts," 
and turning to the man said, ''Stretch forth thy hand." 
The man stretched it out and it was restored. It is said 
to have become as healthy as the other hand. This in- 
cident exasperated the Pharisees. There is nothing that 
makes even ordinarily good men so angry as to be publicly 
placed in the wrong, and so outwitted that they can make 
no defense. As a result of their anger the Pharisees 
went out and took counsel with some Herodians how they 
might destroy Jesus. 

The Pharisees were people who were, according to 
their lights, devoutly religious. They cherished the 
Hebrew ideals. Probably they looked for a Jewish Mes- 
siah or king. The Herodians were people who looked 
for the restoration of the Herodian dynasty. Their aims 
were in general not in harmony with those of the Phari- 
sees. The act of the Pharisees in approaching the 
Herodians is, therefore, a measure of their deep detesta- 
tion of Jesus. The issue was thus clearly drawn between 
the religion of the' Spirit, free to express itself at all 
times in deeds of necessity and mercy, taught by Jesus, 
and a religion that at times exalted rules above mercy and 
necessity and permitted the dead hand of the past to 
torture and destroy the tender life of the present. 

After the services in the synagogue were over, Jesus 
and his Disciples went out by the side of the sea. Mark 
tells us that a great multitude followed him. It would 
seem that people from every direction had taken occasion, 
in their journeys along the great highway that passed 
through the town, to stop in Capernaum over that Sab- 
bath, for the evangelist says that the people in that throng 
came from Judaea, Jerusalem ; from Idumsea, and beyond 
Jordan ; from Tyre and Sidon. They had all heard what 
wonderful things Jesus did, and they wished to see him. 



1 62 Jesus of Nazareth 

Each hoped, no doubt, to see some marvelous work 
wrought by this wonderful man. As once before, he now 
asked for the use of a boat in which he could sit apart 
from the crowd. In this he sat and spoke to them. In 
the crowd there were as usual insane people who were 
cured by the power that emanated from his radiantly 
healthy and sympathetic personality. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

JESUS SELECTS THE TWELVE APOSTLES 

(Mark 3: I3~i9a; Matt. 10:2-4; Luke 6: 12-16.) 

JESUS had now been preaching for some months. 
Galilee had been deeply stirred by his preaching and 
probably even more by his healing. Wherever he 
went people thronged about him to see him. From every 
quarter the sick — palsied, lunatics, lepers, and all the 
wrecks of humanity — were brought to him to be cured. 
Through this response the vast need of humanity stood 
revealed. His experience had, however, brought to light 
a fact of a different sort. He had aroused the opposition 
and hatred of the Pharisees. There is no hatred so bit- 
ter as hatred based on crude religious feelings ; no oppo- 
sition more deadly than the opposition of ecclesiastical 
foes. Already the Pharisees and Herodians were con- 
sulting as to how they might destroy Jesus. The Phari- 
sees represented the most powerful forces in Judaism. 
Ultimately, if he did not yield (and yield he could not), 
they would accomplish their purpose. 

Probably it was for this reason that Jesus determined 
to choose twelve men, train them by having them con- 
stantly with him, and then send them out to preach. Ap- 
parently he began to realize even then that his time might 
be short and that his enemies would violently interrupt 
his work. By training the Twelve to go out and preach 
he could in a measure multiply himself. They would 

163 



164 Jesus of Nazareth 

not be able to do all that he could do, but they could do 
something. They could awaken in men expectation of 
the early coming of God's kingdom ; they could help to 
give them a right idea of the heavenly Father ; they could 
in some degree carry on Jesus' work of healing. To ac- 
complish this purpose Jesus went up into a mountain and 
summoned the persons whom he wished and they came to 
him. From these "he appointed twelve that they might 
be with him, and that he might send them forth to 
preach." They were to "be with him" that he might 
train them. This being "with him" was their high school, 
or college, or seminary course. What a training it must 
have been to have Jesus for a teacher ! 

When the training was well advanced he wished to 
"send them forth." In Greek the word for "send forth" 
is from the same root as the word for "apostle." An 
apostle is "one who is sent" ; he is a missionary, for "mis- 
sionary," which comes from the Latin, also means "one 
sent." He was going to train these twelve Apostles to 
be the first missionaries. 

Naturally several of the twelve were those who had al- 
ready for weeks been with him. First among the number 
were Simon Peter and Andrew, the two brothers whose 
home in Capernaum had been, since that first memorable 
Sabbath in Capernaum, his home. They, as we have seen, 
were just plain fishermen. These two brothers were not 
alike ; little as the Gospels tell us of them, it is enough to 
convince us that each had his own characteristics. Peter 
was quick and impulsive — quick to see and not slow to 
put into words what he thought he saw. He was not al- 
ways right; he was easily mistaken. He was a man of 
strong feelings and was swayed by his emotions. He was 
capable of great and generous resolves and, when acting 
under the impulse of these, he was an inspiring companion 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 165 

and a rare friend. He was capable also of great depres- 
sion and discouragement and., when acting in one of these 
moods, was capable of being an arrant coward. Peter 
was, however, the leader of the twelve. His brother 
Andrew would seem to have been of a more quiet sort. 
He had not his brother's readiness to speak, nor, ap- 
parently, his brother's fluctuating moods. He had, how- 
ever, unbounded confidence in Jesus, and all through the 
rest of his Master's life, when we hear of Andrew, he is 
looking up somebody to bring to Jesus. Xext to Peter 
and Andrew the brothers James and John, Zebedee's sons, 
are named. They also had been constant companions of 
Jesus for weeks, and all through his ministry along with 
Peter they were his closest friends. They were warm- 
blooded, hot-tempered youths. Jesus sometimes called 
them "Sons of thunder' (or, as we might translate it, 
"Sons of lightning"). They were ardent in their love 
and devoted in their friendship, but fiercely intolerant of 
those who did not feel as they did. Once later, when 
some Samaritans were rude to Jesus, James and John 
wished to call down fire from heaven, as Elijah is said 
to have done, to destroy them. 

These two pairs of brothers came from Capernaum. 
Then from the city of Bethsaida he chose two brothers, 
Philip and Bartholomew. Bartholomew's real name was 
Nathaniel. Bartholomew is Aramaic for "'son of Solo- 
mon." People called him the son of Solomon so often 
that it almost supplanted his real name. The third pair 
of Disciples, then, were brothers, sons of a certain Solo- 
mon of Bethsaida. Philip, judging from the little that 
is told of him in the Gospels, was a man of practical af- 
fairs, but of a somewhat retiring disposition. Of Na- 
thaniel Jesus said : "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom 
is no guile!" 



1 66 Jesus of Nazareth 

Mark and Luke mention together as the next three 
Disciples, Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of 
Alphaeus. There is some reason to think that these three 
may have been brothers. Matthew, as we have seen, is 
the same as Levi, the publican, the son of Alphaeus. 
James was also son of Alphaeus and some early texts also 
call him a publican. Unless Alphseus the father of 
James was a different person from Alphaeus the father 
of Levi, James and Matthew were brothers. The fact that 
they had both been in the business of collecting taxes 
would seem to lend probability to the theory that they 
were brothers. The name Thomas means "Twin." In 
the Gospel of John he is called Didymus, which also 
means "Twin." Thomas was, then, somebody's twin 
brother. Of whom was he the twin? There has been 
much speculation as to this. The fact that he is men- 
tioned between Matthew and James, who were both sons 
of Alphaeus, would seem to indicate that he, too, was a 
son of Alphaeus and a twin brother of Matthew. Of 
course we cannot be certain of this; the evidence is too 
slight. It is, however, an interesting possibility. Ac- 
cording to the Gospel of John, Thomas was of a some- 
what despondent, gloomy disposition. He always looked 
on the dark side of things and was unwilling to believe 
good news without the most convincing proof of its 
truth. 

Next in the list of Apostles we find the names of Judas, 
whose surname was Thaddaeus and Simon the Cananaean. 
Several Biblical scholars have suspected that Thaddaeus 
and Simon were also brothers but of this we have no 
real proof. Simon belonged to the sect of Cananaeans or 
Zealots. These were Jews who burned with an intense 
religious and patriotic zeal. They had banded themselves 
together in order to further by every means in their power 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 167 

— by violence, if necessary — the freedom of their country 
and the establishment of the kingdom of God. 1 

The last name in the list of the twelve Apostles is that 
of Judas Iscariot, who was, apparently, in no way related 
by blood to any other one of the twelve. The name Is- 
cariot means "Man of Kiryoth." Kiryoth was the name 
of two or three different places, so we cannot with cer- 
tainty determine whence Judas came. One of these places 
was in southern Judah; many have accordingly supposed 
that Judas was the one Judsean among the twelve Apos- 
tles. Another Kiryoth was in Moab, so that it is pos- 
sible that the parents of Judas had lived in that country. 
While both of these theories are possible, they both seem 
improbable. Others have thought that Kiryoth was to 
be identified with Korae in the Jordan valley, which was, 
apparently, about a day's journey north of Jericho. If 
Judas came from this place, it is easy to see how he be- 
came interested in the work of Jesus. First John the 
Baptist and then Jesus had preached in the Jordan val- 
ley, and Jesus had often passed up and down it. Judas 
seems to have possessed an aptitude for business and to 
have had business experience. He became the treasurer 
and business manager of the Twelve. 

Such were the men whom Jesus chose as his first 
preachers and missionaries. They were not men of learn- 
ing or eminence. They were simple fisher-folk and pub- 
licans. Each had his own peculiarities; but each pos- 
sessed capabilities that in the opinion of Jesus fitted him 
for the task. They had moral insight ; their warm hearts 
responded to divine impressions ; they were capable of en- 
thusiasm and consecration; they were ready to leave all 
and follow Jesus. They were by no means perfect, but 
they were perfectible, Toward that perfection Jesus 
1 See Chapter VIII, p. 49. 



1 68 Jesus of Nazareth 

undertook to lead them in the training school into which 
they now entered. Jesus was their teacher. The degree 
of their advancement depended on themselves. Some ad- 
vanced wonderfully. Judas Iscariot, if we may judge by 
the sequel, like many a modern student, made a great 
failure, but a school in which only one fails is a note- 
worthy school! 



CHAPTER XXIV 

JESUS' FIRST LESSON TO A CLASS OF TWELVE 

(Luke 6: 20-49.) 

BEFORE Jesus selected the twelve Disciples he, 
followed by a group of people, had gone up a 
mountain. After choosing the Twelve, before 
they came down from the mountain, Jesus gave them 
some instruction. This is generally called "the Sermon 
on the Mount." It is thought by many to have come 
down to us in two forms. One of these, contained in 
Luke 6 : 20-49, is comparatively short and simple. The 
other one forms chapters 5-7 of the Gospel of Matthew. 
We now know that the Evangelist who wrote our Gospel 
of Matthew grouped much of his. material according to 
its nature, putting discourses together, then placing mir- 
acles together, then, parables. Some of this material the 
other Gospels place in different connections. It is nat- 
ural to infer, therefore, as many scholars have done, that 
the Gospel of Luke gives us the real form of the Sermon 
on the Mount and that the form in which we have it in 
Matthew, while composed of genuine sayings of Christ, 
is an artificial product of the Evangelist, and does not 
represent a real discourse. 

One's opinion of this matter depends upon his idea of 
the number of sources used by Matthew and Luke. If 
we suppose that the Apostle Matthew wrote a collection of 
the sayings of Jesus which has been woven into our 
present Gospel of Matthew, but was not used by Luke, 1 

1 See Chapter III, p. 21. 

169 



170 Jesus of Nazareth 

we discover, when we have separated from Matthew 5-7 
the parts which, it would seem, were taken from the Say- 
ings of the Lord which the Apostle Matthew collected, 
that we have a second discourse or "Sermon on the 
Mount'' in addition to the one contained in Luke 6 : 20- 
49. The discourse in Luke was spoken to the Disciples 
(see Luke 6:20). The sermon originally recorded by 
the Apostle Matthew was perhaps addressed to a larger 
number of people. The Gospels do not give us all that 
Jesus said on either occasion, only such fragments as 
were remembered and written afterwards. 

In the present state of our knowledge any conclusion 
to which we may come may be wrong, but we shall as- 
sume that Jesus uttered two discourses, and shall give a 
brief summary of each of them. Even if we are wrong 
in this assumption, we are sure that the teaching is all 
that of the Master, and it is better to study it all, even if 
we cannot be sure just when and where it was spoken, 
than to neglect any of it. 

Let us try to put ourselves back in imagination into 
the circumstances under which Jesus was speaking. He 
had been sent to save the world — to conquer it by love. 
He had been preaching but a few months and already 
the opposition and hatred of the ecclesiastical authorities 
were such that he realized that he could not work long. 
He had chosen these men to go out and work for him — to 
continue his work in his stead. As he looked on them 
that day what a contrast they presented to the world they 
had to conquer! They were poor, simple, poorly edu- 
cated fisher-folk and clerks of publicans; the world was 
rich, powerful, sinful, deeply entrenched in prejudices, 
and capable of awful hatred. He did not, however, de- 
spair. Knowing the power of love and goodness, he knew 
these Disciples could triumph, though they might have to 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 171 

suffer untold hardships, and even martyrdom, to do it. 
It was considerations something like these which shaped 
his opening words. These words, as they may be trans- 
lated, are : 

Blessed are you, afflicted ones ; 
For the kingdom of God is yours. 

Blessed are you that hunger now ; 
For you shall be filled. 

Blessed are you who weep now ; 
For you shall laugh. 

Blessed are you, when men shall hate you, 
And when they shall separate themselves from you, 
And reproach you and cast out your name as evil 
For the sake of the Son of man. 

Rejoice in that day and dance for joy, 
For behold, your reward in heaven is great, 
For thus did their fathers unto the prophets. 

But alas for you who are satisfied ! 

For you have received your consolation. 

Alas for you who are full now ! 
For you shall be in hunger. 

Alas for you who laugh now ! 
For you shall mourn and weep. 

Alas for you when all men speak well of you ! 
For thus did their fathers to the false prophets. 

Thus did Jesus present the contrast between those who 
feel themselves to be afflicted or in need, and those who 
are satisfied. Those who are satisfied are incapable of 



172 Jesus of Nazareth 

improvement; they cannot be blessed. Only sorrow 
awaits them. Then Jesus went on to tell his disciples 
to love their enemies, to seek the welfare of those who 
hated them, to pray for those who abused them. If a 
man slapped them on one cheek, they were to offer him 
the other; if one tried to rob them of the outer garment, 
they were not to refuse the under garment also. They 
were to give to all beggars, not to get back what was 
forcibly taken from them. "As you wish men to do to 
you, do you also to them likewise," said Jesus. He then 
went on to ask them what credit it would be to them to 
love those that loved them, or to be kind to those who 
were kind to them. Even bad men do that. He de- 
clared that, if they loved their enemies and were kind 
to those who were unkind to them, then God would give 
them a great reward, for he is kind to the wicked and 
ungrateful. "Be compassionate," he said, "just as your 
Father is compassionate." (See Luke 6: 27-36.) 

People have discussed often whether Jesus' words about 
turning the other cheek and not resisting robbers and al- 
ways giving to beggars are to be taken literally. It has 
been urged that to do in common life just as Jesus says 
here that his disciples should do would place society at 
the mercy of thugs and would encourage robbery and 
shiftlessness. It is quite possible that Jesus spoke in 
strong Oriental metaphor. It is also to be borne in mind 
that he was teaching a small class, to prepare them to 
perform a special duty. That duty was to win the love 
of men by self-sacrifice and suffering. He was not teach- 
ing a class who would go out to govern provinces or states 
and who would become responsible for public order in 
them. There is no doubt but that he means every dis- 
ciple through all time and under all circumstances to love 
his enemies, to be kind and forbearing under insult and 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 173 

provocation, and to be compassionate as God is com- 
passionate. But when we consider that he was training 
a few men for a very special duty at a particular moment 
in the world's history, we do him injustice, if we press 
the form in which he spoke into a law that would abolish 
the police force, encourage violence, and do away with 
the scientific administration of relief to the poor. 

Jesus then continued, "Judge not, and you shall not be 
judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned." 
He dwelt on this thought for some time in his teaching. 
Luke devotes several verses to it. He was teaching them 
the principles of the recoil of judgments. People often 
speak harshly of others, thinking that they are making 
known what bad people those are of whom they speak, 
when all the while the speakers are only exhibiting their 
own ungenerous thoughts and unloving natures. 

He meant the twelve members of this class to be leaders 
of men — guides who could conduct men to God. He 
went on, therefore, to tell them that they ought to know 
the road to God and to have clear eyes. A blind man, 
he said, cannot lead another blind man; they will both 
fall into the ditch. If you are going to be an eye-doctor 
and get a piece of chaff out of your brother's eye, you 
must be able to see well yourself. You must not have 
something in your own eye bigger than he has in his! 
(Luke 6: 39-42.) 

Then Jesus changed the figure and spoke of his dis- 
ciples as trees. Sound fruit grows on sound trees. If the 
tree is decaying, the fruit is likely to be imperfect. Mod- 
ern farmers know how true this is. If the San Jose 
scale attacks their apple trees and makes them begin to 
rot, imperfect spots appear in the apples also. So Jesus 
tried to make these disciples understand that, if they 
were to be prepared to bear fruit in the kingdom of 



174 Jesus of Nazareth 

God, they must themselves be good through and through. 

He concluded this lecture to his class with two compari- 
sons. He likened those who listened to his teaching and 
put it into practice, to a wise man who, in building a 
house, founded it upon a rock. When the rainy season 
came and the region was flooded, the house stood securely. 
Its foundations could not be washed away. On the other 
hand, he compared those who heard his teachings and 
went out and lived as though they had not heard them, 
to a foolish man who built his house on sand. When the 
rainy season came and the region was flooded, the sand 
washed from under the house, the wind blew it over, and 
it fell with a crash — a perfect wreck. 

Such in substance was the first lecture of this matchless 
teacher to his class of twelve. The classroom was the 
open air; the teacher was the Christ. Fortunately some 
one in the class took notes and the words of the lecture 
are among the literary and religious treasures of the race. 



CHAPTER XXV 

ANOTHER LESSON TO A CLASS OF TWELVE 

(Matt. 5-7.) 

THE second discourse which we have supposed that 
Jesus may have delivered to the twelve Disciples 
is recorded for us in the parts of Matthew, chap- 
ters 5-7 which, according to one theory of the composi- 
tion of the Gospels, was taken from the "Sayings of 
Jesus" written by the Apostle Matthew. From the pres- 
ent sources of our knowledge we cannot be sure that this 
is absolutely correct, but, as pointed out already, it af- 
fords a convenient form under which to study the teach- 
ing of Jesus. 

This second discourse begins, like the other, with 
"Beatitudes" or sentences of blessing. Some of them are 
almost identical with those in the first discourse; they 
differ only by the addition of words which make their 
meaning clear. It has often been supposed that in Luke 
we have the form in which Jesus uttered these Beatitudes, 
and that the additions found in Matthew were made by 
the author of the Gospel in order to bring out what he 
thought their meaning must be. If, however, Jesus de- 
livered two lessons or discourses to his Disciples (and 
what good teacher would not give at least that number ?) , 
it is not at all impossible that the changes in Matthew 
were made by Jesus himself. Every teacher knows that 
after a lecture or lesson pupils eager to learn ask ques- 
tions. If the teacher has used strong figures of speech 
that can be taken in more than one sense, they are almost 

175 



176 Jesus of Nazareth 

sure to ask questions. The words of Jesus that we have 
translated "afflicted ones" and "satisfied," also mean 
"poor" and "rich." It seems most probable that, after 
Jesus had finished speaking, as the little company talked 
together, either at once or at their evening meal or during 
the evening, some of them asked him whether he really 
meant that all the poor were blessed and all the rich 
cursed. It would certainly be like a good teacher (and 
we therefore suppose it would be like Jesus) to correct in 
a second lesson for the benefit of all, a misunderstanding 
that had caused one or two to stumble. Such considera- 
tions would satisfactorily account for the differences in 
the form of the Beatitudes. We suppose, then, that the 
second discourse began with a restatement and enlarge- 
ment of the Beatitudes, thus : 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit : 
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are they that mourn : 
For they shall be comforted. 

Blessed are the gentle : 

For they shall inherit the earth. 

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness : 
For they shall be filled. 

Blessed are the merciful : 
For they shall obtain mercy. 

Blessed are the pure in heart : 
For they shall see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers : 

For they shall be called children of God. 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 177 

Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness 

sake : 
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5 : 1-10.) 

Having uttered these great sentences, the Master looked 
at his class as he had done before, and again the con- 
trast between these obscure peasants and the task of win- 
ing the great, powerful, rich, hard-hearted, cruel world 
impressed him. If they were to do it, how genuine must 
be their righteousness, how conspicuous the light that 
shone from them ! In contrast with the Pharisees who 
controlled the ecclesiastical organization of the land, how 
sincere must be their piety, how unsullied their purity, 
how full of love their hearts! It was apparently such 
thoughts as these that led him to say the things that 
follow. 

He told them that they were the salt of the earth, but 
that salt must, in order to be good, have a genuine salt 
taste. If it lost that it became mere refuse. Then he 
told them that they were the light of the world; that men 
did not light one of their little clay lamps and put it under 
a grain-measure, but on a lamp-stand, that it might give 
light to all in the house. "Let your light so shine before 
men," he said, "that they may . . . glorify your Father 
who is in heaven" (Matt. 5 : 13-16). 

He then went on to tell them that he had not come to 
destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. 
His words have often been understood to mean that he 
was going to help men to observe all the details of the 
Jewish law, but this is a mistake. What follows shows 
that he meant that he had come to make possible the 
realization of the ideals toward which the Jewish law 
pointed. Just as the flower fulfills the promise of the 
plant or the bud, so he came to fulfill the Law (Matt. 



17.8 Jesus of Nazareth 

5: 17-20). If they were to be the light of the world, 
they must possess a righteousness that was far superior to 
that of the scribes and Pharisees, In order to impress 
this on them, he took up five points of Jewish law as it 
was then interpreted, and pointed out in each case how 
superficial the Jewish applications were and how different 
real righteousness was. 

The Jews were careful not to kill a man, but they felt 
free to call him all sorts of degrading names, Jesus told 
his disciples that the use of such names was offensive to 
God, and that one who would really worship God must 
not only harbor no grudges in his heart against anybody, 
but be sure that no one harbored a grudge against him 
(Matt. 5:21-24). He then went on to say that it was 
not enough not to commit adultery; an impure thought 
was sin (Matt. 5 : 27-30) ; that it was not enough to do 
the things one had sworn that he would do, but that a 
really good man has but one standard of truth and will 
do a thing in fulfilment of his simplest promise just as 
faithfully as though in an oath he had prayed God to 
punish him if he did not (Matt. 5 : 33-37) ; that running 
through the Jewish law was the principle of revenge — 
"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" — but they 
were to indulge in no acts of revenge, but submit pa- 
tiently to insults (Matt. 5 : 38-41) ; that the law justified 
one who loved his neighbor and hated his enemy, but 
they must love their enemies, and do good to those who 
hated them. Thus would they be like their Father God — - 
they would bear a family resemblance to him (Matt. 
5:43-48). 

After speaking of these matters of law and carrying 
their application from the outward deed to the inner 
thoughts and feelings of the soul, he went on to speak of 
various other practices. Almsgiving was regarded by 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 179 

the Jews as very meritorious, but many Jews would give 
alms only if the fact could be publicly known, so that men 
would praise them for it. They were like some in modern 
times who will give only if their names can appear on a 
list that is to have wide publicity in the newspapers. Jesus 
condemned this practice, bidding his disciples to perform 
their deeds of charity in secret (Matt. 6: 1-4). Then he 
spoke of prayer. Some prayed in public places for a 
long time, that others might see how pious they were. 
Jesus told his disciples to do their praying in secret (Matt. 
6: 5, 6). Similarly some when they fasted made them- 
selves look very miserable that men might know they 
were fasting and see how religious they were. Jesus said 
when men fasted they ought to look cheerful and happy, 
so that only God should know what they were doing 
(Matt. 6: 16-18). 

The course which he was pointing out was indeed dif- 
ficult ! He accordingly added : ''Enter ye in by the nar- 
row gate : for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that 
leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in 
thereby. For narrow is the gate and straitened the way, 
that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it" 
(Matt. 7:13, 14). 

Finally, in conclusion, he warned them against false 
prophets who outwardly appeared to be sheep, but within 
were wolves. As in the first discourse, he told them that 
prophets, like trees, were to be known and judged by 
their fruits. Rotten trees do not bear sound fruit. Not 
all who say, "Lord, Lord," enter God's kingdom, but 
those who do his will (Matt. 7: 15-23). 

Such was the teaching that Jesus gave these fishermen. 
Probably he said much more than this, but this is what 
some of the class remembered and wrote down. There 
have been other great teachers. The Buddha in India 



180 Jesus of Nazareth 

taught groups of disciples, who found his words more 
precious than anything they ever heard; they treasured 
them and added to them. Confucius in China taught 
throngs of pupils, who noted some of his greatest say- 
ings, and wrote them down, so that they are treasured 
by the Chinese to the present day. Socrates in Greece 
was a great teacher ; he inspired two disciples, Plato and 
Xenophon, so that they put his sayings and thoughts into 
immortal literature for the admiration of the world. For 
simple beauty, depth of ethical insight, and practical 
value in the creation of character, the words of Jesus 
surpass them all. What a privilege it was to be a mem- 
ber of this class of twelve ! Jesus' teaching of the Twelve 
did not end with these two lessons. He kept them with 
him for some weeks. Doubtless he often talked with 
them, spoke to them, and further instructed them in the 
things of the inner life. He also took them about with 
him as he continued his work, that they might learn from 
observation and experiment. He used the methods not 
only of the classroom, but also of the laboratory, to fit 
them for their life-work. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

JESUS AND A ROMAN CENTURION 

(Luke 7:1-10; Matt. 8:5-13.) 

FROM the mountain, wherever it was, on which 
Jesus had given the teaching noted in the last two 
chapters, he returned to Capernaum. There was 
stationed in Capernaum a Roman centurion — an army 
officer corresponding to a captain in a modern army. A 
slave of this centurion's, of whom he was very fond, was 
very ill and at the point of death. Like every one else 
in Capernaum, the centurion had heard of Jesus' fame as 
a healer. He therefore sent to the elders of the Jews and 
asked them to intercede with Jesus, to persuade him to 
save the life of this slave. The centurion, being a for- 
eigner, thought that Jesus as a Jew would do it more 
readily for the elders of the synagogue than for him. 
The elders accordingly hastened to Jesus and presented 
the request as earnestly as they could. They said "he 
loves our nation and has built our synagogue." 

The Roman centurions were, as a rule, a high class of 
men. They commanded often, as this one apparently did, 
detachments of soldiers. They were stationed here and 
there throughout the Roman empire, to keep order. On 
these men the security of the public depended. This cen- 
turion of Capernaum was probably in the service of 
Herod Antipas, and was helping to keep order under 
him. The statement, "he loves our nation/' indicates that, 
having lived long among the Jews, he was attracted by 

181 



1 82 Jesus of Nazareth 

their religion. For a century or two the Jews had tried 
to win converts from the heathen, and had had a fair 
degree of success. Many intelligent people were unable 
longer to believe in the imaginary gods of the various 
nations and the Jewish doctrine of the One God, just 
and holy, appealed to them. Some of these had become 
real Jews and observed all the details of the Jewish Law, 
but there were others to whom many requirements of the 
Law seemed as unreasonable as the ceremonial of a 
heathen god. Such people, if drawn to the Jewish doc- 
trine of God, contented themselves by worshiping Jeho- 
vah from afar and observing the moral precepts of the 
Law. They thus lived on the fringe of Judaism, and 
frequently were its generous benefactors. 

This centurion would seem to have been a man of this 
sort. A monotheist probably, reverent and moral, he had 
constructed at Capernaum at his own expense a beautiful 
synagogue, the ruins of which modern excavations have 
disclosed. All these details help us to understand what 
an interesting man it was who was now appealing to 
Jesus. When the Jewish elders made their request of 
Jesus, he readily set out with them to go to the centur- 
ion's house. When the little party approached the house 
the centurion sent some of his friends to meet them and 
to say that he was not worthy that Jesus should come 
under his roof. This was probably done out of consid- 
eration for Jewish customs. The centurion knew that 
no Jew could enter the dwelling of a Gentile without be- 
coming ceremonially unclean, and he wished to save 
Jesus the trouble of ceremonial purification. This was 
probably a part, at least, of his motive. Humility may 
also have prompted his act. 

At all events his message to Jesus ran something like 
this: "Sir, do not trouble yourself; I am not worthy that 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 183 

you should come under my roof. Neither did I think 
myself worthy to come to you, but give the word of com- 
mand and my servant shall be healed. I, like you, am a 
man under authority. I have soldiers under me, and I 
say to one, Go, and he goes; to another, Come, and he 
comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it." 
Jesus was astonished at the centurion's conduct, and, turn- 
ing to those about him, he said : "I have not found so 
great faith, no, not in Israel." Then, turning to the cen- 
turion, he said: "Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so 
be it done unto thee." The Evangelists declare that the 
slave was cured : n that very hour. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE WIDOW OF NAIN AND HER SON 

(Luke 7: n-17.) 

ACCORDING to the same early source Jesus, soon 
after this, performed another wonderful act, which 
seemed to the people far more marvelous than any- 
thing he had yet done. 

About four hours' walk to the southeast of Nazareth, 
on some rising ground in the great plain of Esdrselon, lay 
the little village of Nain. One day as Jesus was enter- 
ing it, followed by his Disciples and a considerable crowd 
of people, they met a funeral procession coming out of 
the village. It was the funeral of a young man, the only 
son of a widow. Doubtless those who' were following 
the bier were making great lamentations. The Orientals 
are far less restrained in the expression of grief or joy 
than we of the Western world ; they give free rein to their 
feelings. They regard it as unnatural not to do so. 

Indeed, they were not always content with the natural 
expressions of grief made by the relatives. They often 
hired men and women skillful in singing dirges, making 
loud exclamations of grief, and in various ways acting 
as though in sorrow (see Jer. 9: 17). Sometimes flute- 
players were employed to add to the doleful effect of the 
mourning by playing lugubrious tunes (see Matt. 9: 23). 
Only the well-to-do could, however, afford such luxuries. 
Probably the weeping in the humble procession which 
Jesus met at the gate of Nain was done by the mother 
and her friends. 

184 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 185 

The heart of Jesus, always sympathetic, was touched 
by the mother's sorrow. He said to her: "Do not weep!" 
He approached the bier, and the bearers stood still. He 
then said to the young man : "I say unto thee, arise," and 
he who was stretched on the bier sat up, and Jesus re- 
stored him to his mother. 

When the people saw this, great fear took hold of them. 
Jesus had, they believed, raised the dead before their eyes. 
They could not but regard him as a most wonderful pro- 
phet. He had power over life and death. One might 
have supposed that they would have been filled with joy, 
but at first two motives prevented that. The sudden 
change seemed to them uncanny. It made them feel that 
they were in the power of one who could do anything; 
he might even read their thoughts — their covetous 
thoughts, their hateful thoughts, their impure thoughts. 
Then, too, in the presence of one who must be holy, if 
God enabled him to raise the dead, they feared because of 
their own sense of sinfulness. They felt like Peter on an 
earlier occasion, when, after Jesus had shown wonderful 
knowledge, he said : "Depart from me, for I am a sinful 
man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8). The first feeling of shrink- 
ing and fear soon gave place to rejoicing. They could 
not but be glad that such a great prophet had been raised 
up. The fame of the deed spread far and wide and 
greatly enhanced the reputation of Jesus. 

What is one, who lives in the modern world with its 
scientific knowledge, to think of this story? Many have, 
of course, rejected it as incredible and impossible. If, 
however, one looks at it in a common-sense way, regard- 
less of any theory, either of theology or of science, there 
is nothing incredible about it. The people believed the 
young man to be dead, but they had no real medical 
knowledge, and he may have been in a state of coma. In 



1 86 Jesus of Nazareth 

the East the bodies of the dead are usually buried within 
twenty-four hours of the time they expire, and, if in a 
state of unconsciousness one were mistakenly believed to 
have died, the people would not wait for certain unmis- 
takable signs of death before proceeding with the funeral. 
The account was written by one who had only the knowl- 
edge of that time, and who, in common with all about 
him, believed the young man to have been dead. There 
is nothing in the story, however, inconsistent with the 
idea that a state of coma had been mistaken for death, 
and that Jesus, with his unique psychic or magnetic power 
had aroused him from that state. If this were so, the ef- 
fect upon the minds of the Galilean peasantry, ignorant 
of the chemical changes that take place after death in the 
tissues of the body, and consequently ignorant of the 
greatness of the miracle which they believed had been 
wrought, would naturally believe that Jesus had raised 
the dead. One who devoutly believes in the Deity of 
Jesus must admit that all this is quite sufficient to satisfy 
the demands of the narrative and of the situation which 
it describes. We need not, therefore, read into the story 
difficulties for the people of to-day, which the account it- 
self does not contain. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE MESSENGERS OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 

(Luke 7:18-35; Matt. 11:3-19.) 

SOON after this John the Baptist sent some of his 
followers to ask Jesus : "Art thou he that com- 
eth, or do we look for another?" This message 
was sent from the Machserus, a castle on the eastern side 
of the Dead Sea, where Herod Antipas had imprisoned 
John. Herod had divorced his wife in order to marry 
the divorced wife of his half-brother; John had dared to 
reprove him for it, even though Herod was the ruler of 
the land and almost as powerful as a king, so Herod had 
imprisoned him. It must have been hard for the prophet 
who had lived for years in the free open air, to be con- 
fined in prison. But such was the fame of Jesus and of 
the work he was doing that it penetrated even the distant 
dungeon where John was confined. 

It had been John's mission to proclaim that the coming 
of the kingdom of God was near, and, as he heard rumors 
of what Jesus was doing, he wondered if Jesus might not 
be the Messiah who was to bring in the Kingdom. Ac- 
cordingly he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus. Per- 
haps John recalled conversations which he had had with 
his cousin years before, and remembered, as he had ap- 
parently done at the time of Jesus' baptism, the surpris- 
ing depth of the insight of Jesus. At any rate now, in 
the confinement of his prison, where he had nothing to 
do but think of the great theme of that ministry which he 

187 



1 88 Jesus of Nazareth 

could no longer exercise, he desired to know whether 
Jesus, whose deeds were so wonderful, was really the 
Messiah. 

The question which John through his disciples asked 
of Jesus was : "Art thou he that cometh or look we for 
another?" This question showed that John had begun to 
suspect what Jesus had up to that time kept in his own 
consciousness — that Jesus was the Messiah. The time 
had, however, not yet come for Jesus to disclose this fact 
to the world. His own Disciples, even those who stood 
nearest to him, did not yet suspect the truth. To have 
answered openly and positively in their hearing that he 
was the Messiah, while they were even less able than they 
were later to appreciate the difference between his concep- 
tion of Messiahship and that entertained by the Jews, 
would have been to run the risk of thwarting the purpose 
of his ministry. Jesus, accordingly, gave an indirect, 
though not an altogether enigmatical answer. He pro- 
ceeded before the eyes of John's disciples to heal many 
sick and infirm people, and then said to the messengers : 
"Go and tell John the things which ye have seen and 
heard : the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear . . . and the poor 
have good tidings preached unto them. And blessed is 
he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in me" 
(Matt. 11:5,6; Luke 7:22,23). The words of Jesus 
to these messengers would recall to one who knew the 
Old Testament well the prophecy in Isaiah 35 : 5 and 
61 : 1 ff. — passages which probably John as well as Jesus 
had long regarded as relating to the coming of the Mes- 
siah and the kingdom of God. Apparently the Disciples 
of Jesus had not so applied them, for it was not until 
afterward that they began to realize that their Master 
was the hoped-for deliverer. We are not told whether 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 189 

John understood the message. We are sure that many of 
John's disciples did not, for they refused to become dis- 
ciples of Jesus. John may. however, have been wiser than 
his disciples. At all events the messengers of John did 
not come back to tell how he understood the message, so 
the Evangelists were unable to tell us any more about 
that. 

After John's disciples had left for their return journey, 
Jesus made their coming the occasion of teaching some 
important truths. He said in substance : "When John was 
preaching, what was it that induced you to flock to the 
wilderness in such crowds? Was it to see a man deli- 
cately clad ? Xo : you would go to a king's palace for 
that. You went to see a prophet. John was indeed a pro- 
phet, yes and much more than a prophet. He was the 
messenger who was to come before the Lord's Messiah. 
Of all men born no one has enjoyed greater religious pri- 
vileges than John; nevertheless he that is least in the 
kingdom of God, when it shall come, will enjoy greater 
religious privileges than he." 

Then, as Jesus thought of the preaching of John, he 
remembered how the great mass of common people had 
thronged the Jordan to be baptized, and how the Phari- 
sees and scribes had stood aloof, regarding him as an un- 
balanced enthusiast, or, in the language of that day, as 
possessed of a devil. Jesus accordingly said: 

"The men of this generation ... are like unto chil- 
dren that sit in the marketplace and call one to another; 
who say, We piped unto you and ye did not dance; we 
wailed, and ye did not weep. For John the Baptist is 
come eating no bread nor drinking wine ; and ye say, He 
hath a demon. The Son of man is come eating and 
drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a 



190 Jesus of Nazareth 

winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!" (Luke 
7:31-34). 

The illustration is taken from a game, often played by 
children, and one in which, perhaps, Jesus had as a boy 
taken part. Some children became sulky and would not 
play. Others did their utmost to find a game that would 
so interest them as to make them forget their disagree- 
able mood. First they played wedding or a feast; then 
they played at a funeral; but the sulky children were 
equally obdurate toward both. "So," said Jesus, "are the 
Pharisees toward John and me. We are most unlike, but 
they find excuses for rejecting us both." "But," he added, 
"wisdom is justified of all her children." Thus did Jesus 
pointedly show how people whose hearts are wrong in- 
variably find seemingly valid excuses for rejecting any 
teaching which interferes with their selfish way of life. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

JESUS AT THE FEAST OF PENTECOST 

(John 5:1-18.) 

PROBABLY the events treated in the last eight 
chapters occurred between Passover and Pente- 
cost of the year 29 A.D. The law of Deuter- 
onomy required Jews to attend the feast of Pentecost, 
and, Jesus, in all probability, was obedient to this law. 
We assume that the feast mentioned in the Gospel of 
John, (5:1) was this feast of Pentecost. We cannot 
prove that such was the case, and are well aware that 
many other theories have been held concerning it. It is 
impossible to tell which of the theories is correct, and the 
view that it was Pentecost has as much probability as any 
other. Our only source of information as to what hap- 
pened at this time is the Gospel of John, which is, as we 
have seen, by no means a contemporary source. Even 
though the source is not contemporary, there is no reason 
why its account of an event like this may not be historical. 
Somewhere in Jerusalem there was a pool into which 
the water gushed intermittently. The location of this pool 
is uncertain, partly because there are different possibili- 
ties of interpretation presented by the text of John 5:2, 
and partly because we cannot be sure what produced the 
intermittent flow of water. When water was flowing 
into the pool from some submerged opening, it of course 
caused a bubbling or some movement on the surface of 
the pool above the opening. In the popular language of 
the day, the water was "troubled," and it was believed 

191 



192 Jesus of Nazareth 

that this ''troubling' ' was caused by an angel. Further, 
it was thought that this "troubling" gave to the water a 
healing quality, and the sick person who could first 
step into the pool after the troubling of the water would 
be cured of whatever disease he had. This belief had led 
to the building of five recesses or "porches" about the 
pool, in which sick persons might be placed to await that 
"troubling" which imparted to the water its healing qual- 
ity. At the time of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, 
1099-1187 A.D., this pool was believed to have been 
situated to the north of the Temple area. Over a pool 
which still exists there and around which there were five 
"porches" a church was built at that time. 

While in Jerusalem at this feast Jesus visited this pool. 
He found the porches filled with sick people waiting for 
the "troubling" of the waters. The well-to-do were ac- 
companied by friends or servants, who, when the long 
awaited moment came, could help them into the water. 
As but one person could, it was believed, be cured at 
each troubling, there was much rivalry for precedence. 
Those who had friends to help them were hurried down, 
while others perhaps more needy, weak from long illness 
and alone because of friendlessness or poverty, were out- 
distanced and lost their chance. 

In one of the porches, the day Jesus visited the pool, 
lay a man who had been ill for more than thirty years. 
He was poor and friendless. At every troubling of the 
waters, another entered it before him. Whether his dis- 
ease would now be called a nervous disease, we do not 
know, but probably it was. After asking the man 
whether he would like to be made well, and thus awaken- 
ing his expectation, Jesus told him to take up the rug 
on which he was lying and walk away. This the man did, 
to his own great surprise and joy. 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 193 

The day on which Jesus had cured the man happened 
to be the Sabbath, and immediately the Pharisees began 
to criticize Jesus for having broken the Sabbath by 
healing a man. Thus another controversy with the 
Jewish leaders over this question was begun. The ac- 
count of this controversy is told by the fourth evangelist 
in the fifth chapter of John in his own way, and al- 
though some of the evangelist's own conceptions have 
evidently colored the narrative, there is no reason to 
doubt the fact that the Pharisees did resent the disregard 
of their rules for keeping the Sabbath, and vigorously 
expressed their feelings about it. 



CHAPTER XXX 

JESUS, A PHARISEE, AND A SINFUL WOMAN 

(Luke 7 136-8: 3.) 

IF our arrangement of the order of events is correct 
(and any theory of the order must be partly guess- 
work), it was soon after Jesus' return to Galilee from 
the Feast of Pentecost, that he was invited by a Pharisee, 
named Simon, to go and dine with him. Jesus accepted 
the invitation. For some reason the Pharisee did not ex- 
tend to Jesus the ordinary courtesies usually observed in 
Palestine at that time in welcoming guests. The roads 
in Palestine are mere paths, and, after the winter's rains 
cease in April, these paths become combinations of rock 
and dust. No one can walk over them without having 
the feet and ankles thickly covered with dust. In the 
time of Christ people in Palestine did not, like the Hittites 
of Asia Minor, wear shoes ; they had only sandals, which 
protected the soles of the feet, but left the upper part of 
the foot exposed to dust. It was, accordingly, one of 
the rules of hospitality either to have a servant remove 
a guest's sandals and wash his feet, or to give the guest 
an opportunity to do it himself. In the East to-day, when 
shoes are worn, boys stand at the entrance of hotels and 
many private houses with large feather dusters with 
which they brush the dust from the shoes of those who 
come in. 

When Jesus arrived at Simon's house, Simon omitted 
this expression of hospitality. Why he did it, we can 

194 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 195 

only imagine. Perhaps he regarded Jesus as a poor car- 
penter — a man on a lower social plane than himself, 
whom he supposed to be unaccustomed to the more re- 
fined ways of well-to-do people, and, therefore, one who 
would not miss this ordinary civility of a host. In the 
East, when people meet a very dear friend, they greet 
him with a kiss. That the Pharisee did not kiss Jesus, 
is not so remarkable, but this other sign of welcome he 
ought to have extended to him. Probably the Pharisee 
had been touched and to some degree thrilled by Jesus' 
teaching and interested in his work; he wished to know 
him better. At the same time he knew how his fellow- 
Pharisees regarded Jesus and was a little ashamed of 
what he was doing. He appears to have been well-to-do, 
if not rich, so he invited Christ to dine with him, in order 
that he might know him better, but treated him in this 
cool and informal way to "save his face" with his own co- 
religionists. 

While Jesus was sitting at dinner in Simon's house, a 
woman that was in the city, a "sinner," when she knew 
that he was there, came in and stooped weeping over the 
Master's feet. Her tears fell on the dust which the 
Pharisee had given Jesus no opportunity to remove, and 
she wiped them away with her hair. Stooping, she kissed 
his feet and anointed them with ointment which she had 
brought. The woman is described as a "sinner," and 
many have inferred from the fact that the very next inci- 
dent narrated by St. Luke includes the statement that 
Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus had cast seven 
devils, followed Jesus (see Luke 8:2), that it was Mary 
Magdalene who anointed Christ's feet. Tradition has 
graphically portrayed her as a sinful woman, whom the 
kindness and purity of Jesus had reclaimed, and who was 
thus expressing her gratitude. 



196 Jesus of Nazareth 

All this may be true, but is not necessarily so. The 
Jews used the word "sinner" to describe Gentiles (see 
Gal. 2:15), so the term might mean no more than that 
the woman was a Gentile, although it may also mean 
that she was notoriously immoral. If she were really 
Mary Magdalene "out of whom seven devils had gone," 
she was a woman who had been insane — an unusually 
hard case of insanity — and had been healed by Jesus. 
As insanity was then regarded as produced by demons 
who were supposed to have taken possession of the per- 
son, she was, of course, regarded as a "sinner." There 
is reason to believe that St. Luke thought the woman's 
name was Mary; we incline to think, therefore, that she 
was Mary Magdalene, i. e., Mary of Magdala. Magdala 
was a city on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee about 
an hour's walk from Capernaum. It lay just at the 
southern edge of the Plain of Gennesaret, to which Jesus 
sometimes went (see Matt. 14: 34). At some time dur- 
ing his ministry the unfortunate Mary of Magdala had 
come into the presence of Jesus and had been healed by 
him. It is probable that it was she who was now ex- 
pressing her gratitude to her benefactor in this unusual 
way. 

Her conduct scandalized the Pharisee. If Mary were a 
Gentile, as is probable, she was ceremonially unclean to a 
Jew. And here was Jesus in Simon's own house per- 
mitting this woman to touch him ! That made Jesus 
ceremonially unclean, too. If she were a Jewess, Simon 
still considered her insane. In either case, he concluded 
that Jesus could be no prophet or he would not permit 
himself to be defiled by her touch. One of the remark- 
able things about Jesus was that he could read what peo- 
ple about him were thinking. He now read the mind of 
Simon. So, turning to him, he told him a story, or 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 197 

parable, of a certain money-lender who had loaned five 
hundred denarii to one man and fifty to another, and 
who, when neither one was able to pay him, forgave them 
both their debts. Jesus then asked Simon, "Which of 
them will love him most?" Simon answered, "I sup- 
pose he to whom he forgave most." Jesus replied : "Thou 
has rightly judged." Jesus, continuing, reminded Simon 
of the fact that Simon had greeted him with no kiss, 
and had given him no opportunity to wash his feet, nor 
had he refreshed him by anointing his head with oil. 
(Such use of oil was a very old custom in Palestine.) 
The woman had, however, in effect supplied all the de- 
ficiencies of Simon's welcome. She had, Jesus said, done 
what she did from genuine love, not from mere polite- 
ness. Then he added : "Her sins which are many are 
forgiven ; for she loved much : but to 1 whom little is for- 
given, the same loveth little." 

After this, turning to the woman, Jesus said, "Thy 
sins are forgiven." The utterance of this sentence on the 
part of Jesus scandalized the Jews present, just as it had 
done on an earlier occasion, 1 but before they could begin 
to criticize him for having uttered it, Jesus turned once 
more to the woman and said, "Thy faith hath saved thee ; 
go in peace." Thus did the love of Jesus reach and help 
the unfortunate, calling forth their grateful love, and 
prompting them to show it in a dramatic manner, and 
thus did his kind and tender words comfort and sustain 
them in the face of the misunderstanding and criticism 
of cold-hearted people who, though righteous and re- 
spectable, had never sounded either heights or depths in 
life enough to sympathize fully with a sinner or to under- 
stand the Saviour. 

Soon after this Jesus started on another tour of preach- 

1 See Chapter XX. 



198 Jesus of Nazareth 

ing through the cities and villages of Galilee. We do not 
know the route he took, or the towns he visited. We do 
know, however, that a group of devoted women followed 
him to minister to his needs. Doubtless they knew what 
hardships such a tour, made by one who traveled entirely 
without supplies, imposed on the Master, and so they 
went in order to make him more comfortable. Three of 
the women of this group are named. They are Mary of 
Magdala (probably the woman who had anointed his 
feet), Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod 
Antipas, a certain Susanna, who was apparently well 
known when the earliest gospel documents were written, 
and many others. Mary Magdalene was apparently not 
poor, and Herod's steward would certainly be supplied 
with money. We may, therefore, be certain that the ob- 
ject of these women was to see that, as Jesus traveled 
about to help others, he should himself not lack ordinary 
comforts. They were prompted to do this by grateful 
love. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

JESUS MISUNDERSTOOD BY HIS BROTHERS 

(Mark 3:20-35; Matt. 12:46-50; Luke 8: 19-21.) 

4 T some time on the journey through Galilee men- 
AA tioned at the end of the last chapter, Jesus entered 
■*- -*"into a house for a little refreshment or rest and a 
multitude tried to follow him. We do not know whose 
house it was or in what city it was situated. Perhaps it 
was a house in one of the towns in the highlands of Gali- 
lee not far from Nazareth ; the sequel would seem to make 
this probable. 

There is nothing so inconsiderate as a multitude or a 
mob. In any crowd, whether in Palestine or elsewhere, 
there are always many people who are subject to chronic 
diseases. Doubtless there were many such in the throng 
that at this time tried to force its way into the house 
where Jesus was. They had heard that the great healer 
was there, and thought it their one opportunity to secure 
his healing touch. They forced their way into the house 
so continuously that Jesus and those about him had not 
leisure even to eat. The house was sufficiently near 
to Nazareth so that some of our Lord's family heard of 
it, and they went to "lay hold" on him and take him home 
with them, for they said "he is beside himself." 

It must have been one of the tragedies of the ministry 
of Jesus that his brethren did not understand him, and 
that not even his mother could share his great thoughts 
and plans. It is always painful to be misunderstood by 

199 



200 Jesus of Nazareth 

those whom we love. For one who possessed the sensi- 
tive nature of Jesus, it must have been doubly distressing. 
It was not that they did not love him. On the contrary, 
probably it was just because they did love him, but could 
not understand the great mission in which he was en- 
gaged, that they wanted to stop his work. They could 
not bear to see him wear himself out on such a crowd, 
expending his energies for people who were nothing to 
them — people who might, perhaps, be worthless and un- 
grateful. It was a very natural feeling. We often mis- 
understand our relatives and friends in similar ways, es- 
pecially if they are greater or better than we are. Every 
young person, who has felt himself or herself misunder- 
stood, can imagine a little of what Jesus suffered from 
this attitude of his mother and brothers. Jesus, too, 
loved them with enduring affection. One of his sayings 
spoken toward the close of his ministry reveals what it 
cost him to sever the ties of family to take up his ministry 
to the world. The intensity of their feeling led them to 
try to stop his work forcibly and take him home. They 
said, "he is beside himself." The word which the Greek 
text attributes to them does not make them say that he 
was possessed of a demon. It is not quite as strong a 
word as that, though it borders upon the idea. It certainly 
does make them say that he was carried away by his 
eagerness and enthusiasm and was not manifesting good 
sense. 

While Jesus was engaged in healing the sick who 
pressed about him, and the crowd prevented his relations 
from approaching closely to him, some scribes from 
Jerusalem stood watching him. Like the other people 
of Palestine, these scribes believed that the insane were 
possessed of demons. That Jesus cured them could not be 
denied, but, according to the philosophy of that time, a 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 201 

miracle was no guarantee that a man was helped by God. 
He might be aided by a demon or by the Prince of de- 
mons. As these scribes watched Jesus, they said: "He 
casts out devils, it is true, but he does it with the aid of 
Beelzebub, the Prince of devils." 

Jesus at once exposed the absurdity of their remarks 
by asking them how, if Satan casts out Satan, his king- 
dom can stand? No royal house, when divided against 
itself, can continue. Its enemies then easily overthrow it. 
So, he declared, if Satan were casting out Satan, his king- 
dom would crumble and fall. "No one," he continued, 
"can enter into the house of the strong man and spoil his 
goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he 
will spoil his house" (Mark 3:27). This was an in- 
direct way of saying that Satan and evil were being ex- 
pelled from the lives of those whom Jesus was healing, 
because One mightier and more holy than Satan was 
binding him and casting him out. As the climax to this 
incident Jesus uttered some words which have often been 
misunderstood, but which are really very clear. He said 
in substance that all kinds of sin and blasphemy would be 
forgiven unto men except one, blasphemy against the 
Holy Spirit; that could never be forgiven. He said this 
because these scribes were saying that the work which he 
did out of his pure, unselfish love, and by the power of 
his consecrated, holy life — work which healed people and 
helped them to be good — was the work of Beelzebub, or 
Satan. Jesus was simply expressing in words an obvious 
moral and psychological truth. One who is so degenerate 
as for party or selfish reasons to call holiness demoniacal, 
or the work of God's Spirit, the work of Satan, has de- 
stroyed his moral sensibilities. None of the beneficent 
influences from God can soften him. Even God cannot 
helpfully forgive those who do not desire forgiveness, 



202 Jesus of Nazareth 

and such a man has destroyed his better and higher 
nature. 

When the conversation with the scribes had reached 
this point, some one near Jesus told him that his mother 
and his brethren were outside and wished to speak with 
him. Unable to reach him, that they might compel him 
to stop his work and go home with them, because of the 
crowd which surrounded him, they had managed to pass 
word in through the throng. Jesus doubtless knew their 
attitude toward him, and understood the purpose for 
which they had come. Their lack of understanding had 
been a secret sorrow, which he had borne in silence. 
Should he yield now to their affectionate, but stupid lack 
of understanding ? Instead, he looked about on the eager 
faces of the throng and said : "Who is my mother and my 
brethren?" Then with another look, and probably with 
a gesture of his hand indicating those whose faces shone 
with faith and love and sympathy, he said : "Behold, my 
mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will 
of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." 

In these words Jesus expressed another great, but very 
simple truth. It is that kinship of spirit constitutes real 
and lasting relationship. The bonds of physical relation- 
ship are up to a certain point sacred, but they are sur- 
passed by the bonds of spiritual kinship. It must have 
been an unspeakable privilege to live in the same house 
with Jesus for thirty or more years and to serve him and 
be served by him, but that was not itself enough to 
create appreciation and love for his purposes. Those 
who never had the privilege of living under the same 
roof with him, when in the flesh, but who share his per- 
ception of what the will of God is and his purpose to do 
that will, are his real kindred. Such stand nearer to him 
than those whom the accident of birth made members of 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 203 

the little family at Nazareth. That, certainly, is an in- 
spiring truth! Jesus spoke no word of criticism of his 
unsympathetic kinsfolk; he simply lifted by a few illu- 
minating words the whole matter to a higher plane, where 
that which was good did not overshadow that which is 
best. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

JESUS' GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO LITERATURE 

(Mark 4:1-34; Matt. 13:1-35; Luke 8:4-18.) 

IT was soon after this, according to the Gospel of 
Mark, that Jesus one day, when by the side of the Sea 
of Galilee, began to teach, and such a throng gathered 
about him that, in order to make them hear, he pushed 
out a little from the shore in a small boat, and addressed 
the throngs who were standing on the beach. His address 
consisted wholly of parables — the parables of the Sower, 
the Lamp, the Silent Growth, and the Mustard Seed. To 
these the Gospel of Matthew adds the parables of the 
Tares, the Leaven, the Hidden Treasure, and the Drag 
Net. Perhaps not all of these were uttered upon this 
particular occasion, but it is clear that the discourse de- 
livered that day was made up of a succession of parables. 
A parable is a story told for the purpose of illustrating 
a truth. The story has to do with natural outward events ; 
the truth illustrated is usually of a moral or spiritual na- 
ture. A parable differs from a fable. In fables unnatural 
features are introduced, such as the talking of animals. 
The incidents of a parable are natural and such as men 
encounter in actual life. Parables have been employed 
in literature by many writers in different nations. We 
find them in the Buddhistic literature of ancient India; 
one, at least, is attributed to a Persian king; there are 
parables in the Old Testament, in the Jewish Talmud, and 
in the Koran, but none of these compare with the parables 

204 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 205 

of Jesus. There is in his parables a delicacy of touch, a 
completeness, a brevity, a virility, and a complete literary 
appropriateness, which make them unique. In his para- 
bles Jesus showed himself a skillful literary artist. He 
transfigured the parable. While he himself wrote noth- 
ing, through the parable he brought one form of literature 
to its perfection. 

Sometimes Jesus founded his parable on an historical 
event, such as the going of Archelaus to Rome to get his 
kingdom (see Luke 19: 12-27) \ sometimes on the sayings 
of a well-known Jewish book, such as the sayings in Ec- 
clesiasticus 5:1-5 (see Luke 12:16-21). More often 
he took the common incidents of farming and of every- 
day life. Thus the parables contained in Mark 4, which 
may not all have been uttered during the discourse of this 
day, are based on the familiar experience of a sower, the 
silent growth of grain, and the mystery of how so large 
a plant grows from the tiny mustard seed. Those which 
the Gospel of Matthew adds to these are based on equally 
familiar things — in many a wheat-field tares grow with 
the wheat. Every Palestinian child had watched the 
working of leaven (yeast) as its mother made bread for 
the family. To this day men come at times upon hidden 
treasure in Palestine — things of value forgotten or lost 
or concealed by people who have long been dead. Every- 
body who lived by the shore of the Sea of Galilee was 
familiar with the large nets, which were drawn through 
the water enmeshing every variety of fish, good and bad, 
at once. 

With these familiar things Jesus sought to teach how 
the kingdom of God comes and what it is like. He and 
all who preach the word for him sow the seed broadcast. 
The roads in Palestine were mere foot-paths through the 
fields. They were only two or three feet wide and 



206 Jesus of Nazareth 

farmers plowed up to their very edges. Thorny shrubs 
grow in abundance in the soil of that land and the small 
plows of antiquity were insufficient to uproot them. 
Everywhere ledges of rock come at frequent intervals to 
the surface. The hard roadbed, the stony places, the 
thorns, and the birds render much of the seed unfruit- 
ful, but that which does take root bears enough amply to 
repay the husbandman. Such is God's way in bringing in 
his kingdom among men. Then the grain grows silently 
and slowly. From day to day one sees no change, but 
all the while the work is going on. It is thus with the 
kingdom of God. It "cometh not with observation." 
The preacher's message seems very small; his words are 
simple; perhaps his thought does not seem profound; 
but if the great truths of God and man's true relation to 
him be but sown in good soil, consequences wonderfully 
great follow. This is the meaning of the mustard seed. 
In the tropical valley of the Jordan near the Sea of Gali- 
lee the writer has seen mustard plants which towered 
above his head as he rode through them on horse back. 
There the mustard plant becomes a "great tree," a fit 
symbol of the kingdom of God. 1 You cannot pull up the 
tares in a wheat-field without dislodging the roots of the 
wheat; while you are pulling in a great drag net you can 
not stop to throw out the inedible fishes without losing 
those that are good for food. Similarly, God does not 
separate the bad from the good while the kingdom of 
God is still in the making. 

It seems that Jesus just told these stories to the multi- 
tude and did not attempt to make the moral very clear, 
so, when he was alone with the Disciples, they asked him 
about them. He answered, "Unto you is given the 
mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are 

i See Chapter I, p. 4. 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 207 

without, all things are done in parables : that seeing they 
may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, 
and not understand; lest haply they should turn again, 
and it should be forgiven them/' This answer of Jesus 
has greatly puzzled many. It has been made a ground 
for belief in a doctrine of predestination, i.e., the doctrine 
that some people before their creation have been designed 
by God for woe, and others before their creation for 
salvation. In reality the words are a somewhat free quo- 
tation of Isa. 6 : 10, which expresses the point of view of 
the early Hebrew prophets. These prophets thought of 
God as so completely ruling his world that he was re- 
sponsible for the evil in it as well as for the good. On ac- 
count of this belief, they could not distinguish between 
result and purpose. If things happened in a certain way, 
they could only think that it was because God designed 
that they should so happen. It is a matter of common 
observation that some people grasp truth, religious and 
scientific, much more quickly than others; they have 
quicker perceptions. Some people are much more willing 
than others to do right, when they understand the right. 
There is undoubtedly this difference of endowment, how- 
ever we may explain it. It is also equally true that God 
has made us free to choose. He will finally judge us, as 
the parable of the Talents teaches, not on the ground of 
our endowment, but by the use we make of the endow- 
ment which we have. 

The immediate meaning of the words of Jesus seems to 
be that he was in these parables trying to teach the people 
that the kingdom of God was not to be the kind of king- 
dom which they expected. It was not to be begun with 
a miraculous upheaval, or a series of battles, or with the 
cruel burning of Israel's enemies, but it was an affair of 
the heart — of the implanting in willing hearts of the 



208 Jesus of Nazareth 

truth of God, its germination there, its growth, the con- 
sequent transformation of character, and the gradual cre- 
ation by this means of a new life for the whole world. 
Some time the good would be separated from the evil, 
but that is a "far-off divine event." 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

TWO REMARKABLE INCIDENTS 

(Mark 4:35-5:20; Matt. 8:23-34; Luke 8:22-39.) 

WHEN the discourse from the boat, which con- 
sisted so largely of parables, was completed, it 
was nearly evening. Multitudes were throng- 
ing the shore and it was evident that, if Jesus went ashore 
on the west of the lake, he could not hope that the throng 
would grant him any leisure for that renewal of strength 
by prayer and communion with God which he found so 
necessary. He therefore said to his Disciples : "Let us go 
over to the other side of the sea." They accordingly 
started to row over to the eastern shore. Even 
then some boats followed him; people were so 1 at- 
tracted by him that they refused to be left behind. 
As they rowed toward the eastern shore night fell 
upon them and Jesus, wearied with his labors of 
love, threw himself on a cushion in the stern of the 
boat, and fell into a deep sleep. While he was sleep- 
ing and the fishermen were slowly pulling the boat through 
the darkness, one of those violent winds, so frequent on 
the Sea of Galilee, arose. This little body of water is, 
on account of its situation, especially subject to such gales. 
They come suddenly, and often subside as suddenly. It 
will be remembered that the Sea of Galilee lies in a deep 
gorge. Its surface is 681 feet below the level of the 
Mediterranean Sea. High banks surround it. Those on 
the west are especially precipitous. Here and there deep 

209 



210 Jesus of Nazareth 

gorges, gradually sloping upward, lead from the level of 
the water to the high lands on either side. The air in 
the pocket over the lake naturally becomes heated and 
much lighter than the cool air on the surrounding hills. 
Atmospheric equilibrium is disturbed and cool streams of 
air rush with great force down the gorges, forcing the 
warm air over the lake upward, and violent gales are the 
result. 

It was such a gale that caught the little boat that night 
and tossed it about like a toy. It must have been an unus- 
ually severe wind even for that sea, for the experienced 
fishermen, who had spent many nights of their lives on 
that very water and were accustomed to the vagaries of 
its atmosphere, were driven to their wits' end and were 
thoroughly frightened. In their terror they could not un- 
derstand how Jesus could sleep through it all and awoke 
him to ask the somewhat ungracious question: "Master, 
carest thou not that we perish?" Jesus then arose and 
said, "Peace! Be still!" One cannot help wondering 
whether the words were not addressed to the complaining 
Disciples, but the wind, as often happens there, subsided 
as quickly as it had risen, and believing the words ad- 
dressed to the wind and the sea the Disciples thought that 
the blowing had ceased in obedience to their Master's 
command, and they accordingly believed him to be even 
more wonderful than before. 

When morning came they went ashore on the east side 
of the lake at a little place called Kheresa. The place was 
so insignificant that, in the text of Mark's Gospel, it be- 
came confused with Geresa, a famous city of the Deca- 
polis scores of miles to the southeast. Some later scribes 
when copying the gospel, knowing the distance of Geresa, 
corrected the text to Gadara. Gadara, though nearer to 
the Sea of Galilee than Geresa, is also several miles to the 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 211 

south of the sea, so it is impossible that Jesus and his 
Disciples can have landed there. Modern research has 
brought to light the little hamlet of Kheresa, on the very 
shore of the lake. This is doubtless the point where they 
landed on the morning after the gale. 

Not far away from Kheresa, a little to the southeast, 
was the city of Hippos, one of the cities of the Decapolis. 
The Decapolis was originally a league of ten cities, whose 
inhabitants were chiefly Greeks. All the population of 
these cities were Gentiles and Gentiles rilled the outlying 
villages. These Gentiles made of the pig a domestic ani- 
mal and fed herds of swine in their fields. As swine were 
unclean to Jews, this feature of the agriculture of the 
Decapolis distinguished the country from that of the 
Jews. 

As Jesus and his followers landed from the boat and 
started toward the higher lands, they met a violent lunatic. 
In the language of that time he was "possessed of a le- 
gion of demons." The man was particularly violent. 
He had been often bound with fetters and chains and 
had invariably broken them and escaped. At this time 
he was roaming, scantily clad, from cavern to cavern and 
from tomb to tomb with which the walls of the valley 
leading up from the lake were honeycombed. When he 
saw any one approaching he cried and howled, so that the 
belief had spread that he was continually doing this. 
There is no doubt but that our Lord possessed in supreme 
measure what is in modern times called "psychic" power. 
With the almost uncanny intuition with which people 
with disordered minds sometimes discern the presence of 
such persons, the man ran to Jesus and fell down before 
him. Jesus, thereupon, commanded the demon to come 
out of him. The demon is said to have remonstrated 
and to have earnestly besought Jesus that he would not 



212 Jesus of Nazareth 

send him away out of the country, and, finally, that he 
might be permitted to enter into a herd of swine which 
were feeding near by. This Jesus is said to have per- 
mitted, whereupon the whole herd became panic-stricken 
and ran over the edge of the precipitous shore of the 
lake and were drowned. 

This miracle has, perhaps, been the subject of more 
critical discussion than almost any other miracle of Jesus. 
The discussions have turned about two points : whether 
demon-possession is ever real, and what is to be made of 
the uncanny story of the swine. As to the first of these 
points, it has already been discussed. It has been noted 
that the belief in demons has been practically universal 
among men, and that possession by demons was a natural 
way of accounting for insanity before man had any 
knowledge of mental diseases or of diseases of the brain. 
Some modern believers in psychical phenomena think that 
they have evidence that the spirits of wicked men actually 
sometimes take possssion of those who> have formerly 
been their victims. On the other hand, many educated 
people have ceased to believe in the existence of demons. 
Those who believe in the existence of demons or the 
survival of wicked spirits have no difficulty in explaining 
the part of the narrative concerning the swine. Others 
have supposed that the final contortions and cries of the 
madman, before he was restored to sanity, so frightened 
the herd of swine that they blindly rushed over the preci- 
pice, and that the Disciples accordingly inferred that the 
demons had entered into the swine. Whatever view a 
modern reader takes of the incident, three things stand 
out as certain : the cure of the man, the drowning of the 
swine, and the belief by all who witnessed the events 
that the two things were connected. 

When the herd of swine rushed to their destruction, 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 213 

those who kept them fled to the city in terror, and re- 
ported the matter to their employers. The owners came 
out to the place and were astonished to see the lunatic, 
who had been the terror of the region, sitting at the feet 
of Jesus, sane and properly dressed. Naturally they 
were afraid. They felt that Jesus had some uncanny 
power. He had destroyed their swine; he might cause 
them further loss. They besought him to depart from 
their country. Their financial interests were endangered 
by the presence of this Jew. True, he could heal the sick, 
but, unless one is ill one's self, property is valued more 
highly than the health of other people! So they asked 
Jesus to go away. 

Jesus accordingly started to reembark for the western 
side of the sea, when the sufferer whose reason had been 
restored asked that he might go with him. He felt safe 
in the company of his Great Physician, and doubtless, too, 
his heart went out in love and gratitude to the attractive 
and winning personality of Jesus. Instead of granting 
his request, Jesus told him to go home to his friends and 
tell them what great things God had done for him. The 
man accordingly departed and began to tell his story — 
a story that went quickly from mouth to mouth. There 
were then no newspapers in Palestine, but rumor supplied 
their place. As if by a kind of "wireless" the story 
spread, and the fame of Jesus was established in that 
part of the Decapolis. Reembarking, Jesus and his Dis- 
ciples went back to Capernaum. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

JAIRUS AND HIS DAUGHTER 

(Mark 5:21-43; Matt. 9: 18-26; Luke 8:40-56.) 

SO popular was Jesus with the people of that region 
as a healer, if not as a teacher, that, when he landed 
near Capernaum, some were on the lookout for him, 
and soon a crowd was collected about him. Just how 
he was occupied with the people of this throng — whether 
he was teaching or performing cures — the Gospels do not 
tell us. While he was busied with these people on the 
shore of the lake, Jairus, one of the rulers of a synagogue 
— probably the synagogue in Capernaum — sought out 
Jesus. When he caught sight of Jesus, he came with 
evident haste and, prostrating himself at Jesus' feet, said : 
"My little daughter is at the point of death. I pray thee 
that thou come and lay thy hands on her, that she may 
be made whole, and live !" If not the only daughter, she 
was much beloved by her father. The Greek of St. Mark 
might be happily rendered, "My little girlie is at the point 
of death !" Jairus chose words which revealed at once 
the intensity of his affection and his anxiety. Even to- 
day they permit a sympathetic reader to look deep into 
his heart. Jesus started immediately to go> with Jairus to 
his house, and the multitude followed him. When they 
reached the city they filled the narrow, crooked streets. 
Others, seeing the throng, joined it, so that progress was 
slow. 

In the throng there was a woman who had been looking 
for just such an opportunity. For twelve years she had 

214 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 215 

been suffering from an infirmity that at that period of the 
world defied the arts of such physicians as there were. 
She had spent all that she had in fees to these doctors, 
but, far from being made better, she rather grew worse. 
One does not wonder at this, when he knows something 
of ancient medicine. The Egyptians had some medical 
knowledge before 2500 B.C., and before 2000 B.C. the 
Babylonians made laws governing the practice of medi- 
cine and surgery. In India, too, the ancient Hindus pos- 
sessed some medical knowledge, not to mention the 
medical wisdom of the ancient Greeks. The books of 
the Egyptians teach us that they knew something of the 
medicinal value of many herbs and something of surgery. 
It was thought, however, in all these countries that dis- 
ease was caused by demons which had taken up their resi- 
dence in the body, and the nauseating doses which the 
patient was compelled to take were accompanied by the 
recitation of incantations for the expulsion of the de- 
mons. We do not know what kind of physicians were to 
be found among the Jews at this time. Some centuries 
later we find a good deal of fairly sound medical knowl- 
edge reflected in the Talmud. Perhaps the Palestinian 
physicians of the time of Christ were as good as were to 
be found in other countries. Even if this were the case, 
however, the physicians were ignorant of anatomy, of 
many elementary facts of physiology, and, like all people 
down to the end of the nineteenth century, they were ig- 
norant of germs. Their remedies were often of a nature 
to foster the germ of a disease rather than to kill it. 
What sort of treatment the physicians of Galilee had 
given this woman we can only imagine, but it is easy to- 
understand the statement in the Gospel of Mark, that she 
"was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse." 

The fame of Jesus as a healer had reached this woman. 



2i6 Jesus of Nazareth 

It would seem that she did not live in Capernaum, or she 
must have heard of him sooner. Probably she lived in 
some distant town and had come down to Capernaum in 
the hope that she might meet with the wonderful healer 
and by him be given back her health. She had arrived 
at Capernaum only to find that Jesus was in the city only 
occasionally, and, while there, was beset by throngs. 
Now, as she saw him slowly making his way through the 
crowded street, she thought her opportunity had come. 
She said within herself, "If I touch but his garments, I 
shall be made whole/' Pressing forward, she touched 
him and at once felt that a change had been wrought in 
her. She felt sure that her infirmity had gone. It is 
probable that her trouble was of a sort upon which the 
mental and nervous reactions of the body have a great 
influence. What is now known of cases of faith healing 
makes this cure credible even to those who once were 
sceptical about it. 

The woman had sought to escape observation, but 
Jesus was so sensitive to the condition of those about him, 
that escape was impossible. He turned and said, "Who 
touched my garments?" His Disciples said, Peter acting 
as their spokesman, "Thou seest the multitudes thronging 
thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?" Jesus, how- 
ever, persisted in his inquiry, and, when the woman saw 
that she could not escape notice, she came and, prostrating 
herself at his feet, told him all the truth. Jesus said : 
"Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace." 

At length, after threading their way slowly through the 
throng, they reached the house of Jairus, to find that his 
little daughter had become unconscious. She was be- 
lieved to be dead, and the professional mourners, who 
were employed on such occasions adequately to voice the 
grief of a household, had already begun their tumultuous 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 217 

wailing. Jesus went into the house and asked them why 
they were weeping and making such an outcry. "The 
child," he said, "is not dead, but sleepeth." They, how- 
ever, "laughed him to scorn." Jesus then compelled the 
mourners and the neighbors to withdraw, and, taking 
with him the father and mother of the child and the Dis- 
ciples who were with him, went into the room where the 
little form lay. Taking the child's hand, he said in the 
Aramaic of Galilee, the language she understood : "Tali- 
tha qumi" "Little girlie, get up." The sympathetic reader 
can almost hear his gentle tone. In response to his com- 
mand she opened her eyes and sat up. Jesus restored her 
to her parents and told them to give her something to 
eat. This command of his is a very human touch. He 
understood both physical and spiritual needs. 

All who had come to the house and all who heard of it 
were amazed. They believed that Jesus had raised to 
life one who had died. From his own declaration that 
she was not dead and from what we know of states of 
coma which often appear like death, we can understand 
what really happened somewhat better than the people of 
ancient Galilee could. Wonderful as it is that one pos- 
sessed of the extraordinary psychical power of Jesus 
should rouse, by his word and touch, a person from a 
state of suspended animation, it is not a violation of the 
laws of which we are beginning to have some knowledge. 
To us the wonder of the event lies in the unusual power 
and beneficence of one who could so employ laws of the 
spirit, but to the men of the first century it appeared in 
quite another light. They knew nothing of natural law. 
They had believed the child dead. They believed that 
Jesus had raised her to life. This, to them, was probably 
no more wonderful than it is to us that he should have 
aroused her from a state of coma. 



218 Jesus of Nazareth 

Jesus foresaw that the notoriety which their belief 
would give him might cause him trouble. He accordingly 
earnestly urged those who were present not to tell others 
what had happened. The strain of silence, under such 
circumstances, was, however, too much for human na- 
ture. The fame of the deed spread far and wide. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE TWELVE SENT FORTH TO PREACH 

(Matt. 9:35-10: 15; Mark 6: 7-11.) 

THE events reviewed in chapters XXVI-XXXIV 
are doubtless but a few of those which rilled the 
four months between the Feast of Pentecost and 
the Feast of Tabernacles. They are, however, all that 
our Gospels have recorded of the busy days of these hot 
summer months. At some time during the summer 
Herod Antipas had put John the Baptist to death. The 
Gospels attribute this act of Herod to the request of 
Herodias, the wife whom Herod had unlawfully mar- 
ried ; 1 Josephus declares that Herod did it for political 
reasons, because John was so popular with the people that 
Herod feared that John would lead a rebellion. 2 The two 
statements are not contradictory. The political motive 
may have been urging Herod to the deed, which he was a 
little afraid to perform, and it may have needed the re- 
quest of Herodias to crystallize his resolution. But 
whatever the motive, he had beheaded John. The various 
events of this summer had greatly increased the reputa- 
tion of Jesus. The fame of his wonderful works was 
upon all lips; it penetrated the palace of Herod. Herod, 
who was superstitious as well as tyrannical, but who, like 
many such men, possessed something compounded partly 
of conscience and partly of selfish fear, thought that 

iSee Chapter XXVIII. 

2 See Josephus, "Antiquities," Book 18, Chapter 5, 2. 

219 



220 Jesus of Nazareth 

Jesus was John come to life again. Whatever supersti- 
tion Herod may have had, having embarked on the enter- 
prise of ridding himself of a possible rival, he would not 
stop, even if he thought John had come to life again; so 
he began to seek opportunity and excuse to act against 
Jesus. 

Later events abundantly proved, if proof were neces- 
sary, that Jesus was not afraid to die, but, for the success 
of his work, it was necessary that he live a little longer. 
His Disciples were not yet trained to carry his work for- 
ward, and they had not yet been admitted to his Mes- 
sianic secret. They must be given an opportunity to gain 
experience in ministering to men, and must be brought 
to understand, in so far as they were capable, his Mes- 
sianic claim and the way in which his idea of the King- 
dom of God differed from the Jewish ideas of it. He 
accordingly determined at this time to send his Disciples 
out to preach and to withdraw from Galilee himself. 
He therefore called the Twelve to him, divided them 
into twos, and sent them out to preach, apparently ar- 
ranging that one of the six pairs should remain with him. 
They were to preach, to have authority over demons, and 
to heal. They were to go simply clad and without pro- 
vision for their journey. They were to be dependent 
upon the hospitality of those to whom they ministered. 
They were to greet courteously the people of any house 
which they approached; if they were courteously re- 
ceived they were to remain there while working near; if 
not courteously received, they were to shake off the dust 
from their feet and go to another house. It would be in- 
teresting to know in what direction each of the two 
pairs of Disciples went, but our sources do not give us 
information upon that subject. Now, while he sent the 
others away by different routes, James and John, the 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 221 

sons of Zebedee, remained with him, and in their com- 
pany he started for Jerusalem to attend the Feast of 
Tabernacles. 1 

On this journey Jesus adopted the unusual course of 
traveling straight through Samaria toward Jerusalem. 
Doubtless the reason for this was that Herod's suspicions 
were aroused, and that Herod had spies watching for 
him. The route usually followed by Jews down the Jor- 
dan valley would have taken Jesus through territory 
ruled by Herod, where that ruler might have arrested 
Jesus at any time. Samaria was occupied by the sect of 
Samaritans. They were an offshoot of the Jews. It 
has already been pointed out 2 that when, in the year 
722 B.C., Sargon, king of Assyria, had sacked and de- 
stroyed the city of Samaria, he transported 27,290 of the 
inhabitants of the country to distant parts of his empire, 
and filled their places in the land with people from dis- 
tant cities which within a few years he captured. These 
were brought from the cities of Cutha and Sepharvaim in 
Babylonia, from Hamath on the Orontes in Syria, and 
perhaps from other places. These strangers had not been 
in Palestine very long before they were attacked by lions, 
which at that time had not been altogether exterminated 
in Palestine. The new settlers supposed that they 
suffered these attacks because they had not paid proper 
respect to the God of the land. He, being angry at their 
negligence, had sent the lions, so they thought, to punish 
them. They accordingly sent a request to the king of 
Assyria that one of the priests of the God of the land be 

iThe remaining portions of Mark, chapters 6, 7, and 8 belong to 
a later part of Christ's ministry. The same is true of Luke 9 : 10- 
50. Possibly a part of Matt. 10 : 16 ff. was spoken at this time, but, 
as it now stands in the Gospel it contains words descriptive of 
conditions after the Resurrection of Jesus. 

2 See Chapter I, p. 8. 



222 Jesus of Nazareth 

sent to teach them how to worship him, in order that their 
lives and their herds might be safe. In compliance with 
this request a priest of the Hebrew God Yahweh (Jeho- 
vah) was sent them, and in due time they became his 
worshipers. They intermarried with the Hebrews al- 
ready there and by the time of Nehemiah, three hundred 
years later, they were all one people. 

When, under Nehemiah, the Jewish community at 
Jerusalem was reestablished and the Levitical law put 
into force, the Samaritans accepted this law, and desired 
to be received by the Jews of Jerusalem on equal terms 
with them. This recognition Nehemiah and his contem- 
poraries refused. They regarded the Samaritans as 
aliens on account of the fact that they were partially 
descended from the people who had been brought into 
the land by Sargon. The friction between Jews and 
Samaritans was long continued, until finally the Samari- 
tans built a rival temple of their own on Mount Gerizim 
at Shechem. In the time of Christ that temple was still 
standing and the whole hill country of Ephraim and the 
region called Samaria were filled with people who wor- 
shiped God in it. Naturally, there was acute friction 
between Jews and Samaritans. The Jews regarded the 
Samaritans as heretics tinged with a foreign descent and 
looked down upon them. The Samaritans considered 
themselves as orthodox as the Jews, of as noble an origin, 
and resented cordially the Jewish attitude. In the course 
of religious history it has often happened that a sect has 
a much stronger aversion to those who have sepa- 
rated from them, or from whom they have separated, 
than they have to men of quite a different religion. 
The hostility between Jews and Samaritans is one of the 
earliest instances of this. Samaria was joined to the 
procuratorship of Judaea, and was at this time governed 



The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee 223 

by Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator. In Samaria 
Jesus would not be molested by Herod Antipas. 

Jesus, accompanied by James and John, entered, there- 
fore, Samaritan territory as they walked toward Jerusa- 
lem. As night drew on the two Disciples went ahead of 
their Master into a village of the Samaritans to find 
lodging. It was evident that they were Jews and the fact 
that they were on their way to Jerusalem to worship in 
the Temple there rather than to Shechem to worship on 
Mount Gerizim could not be hidden. We do not know 
that any questions were asked; the Samaritans seem to 
have recognized the Jewish faces of James and John and 
inferred the rest. At all events they refused them lodg- 
ing and apparently drove the Disciples away with insult- 
ing words. James and John came back to Jesus in a 
very angry frame of mind. They longed to take ven- 
geance on these Samaritans. They had seen Jesus do so 
many wonderful things that they thought he could do 
anything, and, in their anger, they asked that Jesus would 
give them power to call down lightning from heaven to 
destroy the Samaritans. Jesus turning, rebuked them for 
this. According to some ancient manuscripts of the Gos- 
pels he said, "You do not know what kind of spirits you 
have." Jesus then led the way to another village, where, 
apparently they found a resting-place. 



BOOK IV 
THE PER^AN MINISTRY OF JESUS 

Chapters XXXVI-XLII 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

JESUS AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES 

(John 7 and 3 and Luke 10 : 38-42.) 

OUR knowledge of what happened in Jerusalem at 
the time of the Feast of Tabernacles is derived 
almost wholly from the Gospel of John. Although 
the Gospel of John was, as we have seen, written some 
seventy years after the events which it describes, and, 
although in its pages the actual historical outline is in 
some respects lost, the belief grows, the longer one studies 
the Gospel, that its author had access to a genuine tradi- 
tion of the life of the Master. 

As St. John tells the story of this feast, Jesus did not 
arrive in Jerusalem until after the feast had begun. The 
Pharisees as well as Herod had become thoroughly hos- 
tile to Jesus and were hoping at this time to do something 
to check his career. Before he came they speculated as 
to the probability of his coming. Would he dare to ven- 
ture again within reach of their power? While they 
were talking about it, Jesus arrived and quietly went 
about his devotions and his work as he had done hitherto. 
Jesus, serenely indifferent to the enmity of the Pharisees, 
went up into the Temple courts and taught the people as 
he had opportunity. The crowds of common people, who 
had gathered for the feast and who daily thronged the 
Temple, heard him gladly. Some of the rabbis and doc- 
tors of the Law were impressed by the extent of his 
knowledge and the depth of his insight. "How," they 

227 



228 Jesus of Nazareth 

asked, "does this man know letters, having never 
learned ?" 

The growing popularity of Jesus and his disregard of 
some of the fine-spun rules of the Oral Law, led the 
chief priests and Pharisees to the conclusion that in the 
interest of the established order Jesus' career must be 
checked; they accordingly sent officers to arrest him and 
bring him into their presence. Among the men sent on 
this errand was a Jewish rabbi and member of the San- 
hedrin (the chief Jewish council), whose name was Nico- 
demus. Nicodemus is a Greek name, so the man, or his 
father and mother, had probably lived at some time out- 
side of Palestine. We learn from the Jewish historian 
and from the Talmud that it was a name borne by other 
Jews. 

These officers of the Sanhedrin found Jesus teaching 
the people and listened to his words. At least one of 
them, Nicodemus, was so impressed that he was unwill- 
ing to arrest Jesus, and the rest of them, persuaded, per- 
haps, by Nicodemus, took the same point of view. They 
accordingly returned to their brethren without him. 
When asked why they had not brought Jesus, they re- 
plied "Never man so spake." By these few words they 
showed how deeply Jesus had impressed them. The ques- 
tioners then asked: "Are ye also deceived? Have any of 
the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But 
this multitude which knoweth not the law are cursed." 
In this way these Pharisees expressed their contempt. 
The common people they despised as ignorant. The com- 
mon people did not study the Law; they were careless of 
its fine points ; they were not quick to see the bearing of 
principles and practices not in harmony with it ; they were 
swayed by feeling and enthusiasm. Nicodemus answered 
them: "Does our law judge any man before it hear him 



The Per (Fan Ministry of Jesus 229 

and know what he doeth?" This was a sound principle 
of law to which they could make no satisfactory retort, 
so, like other people in similar situations, they became 
angry and began to heap upon Nicodemus personal abuse. 
"Art thou also of Galilee?" they said; "search and look, 
for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Thus spoke 
Judaean pride. 

It was probably during this festival period, perhaps on 
the very night after these events, that Nicodemus sought 
out Jesus by night for a further conversation with him. 
Nicodemus was a good, but somewhat timid man. He 
was greatly attracted to Jesus, but he had not the courage 
to brave the scorn of his associates. He had a position 
and a reputation to maintain; he was no longer young. 
The courage and daring of youth were not his. Never- 
theless, he realized that Jesus was a man of God; he 
longed to be near him — to hear him speak further. He 
therefore sought out Jesus. The story is recorded in the 
third chapter of St. John's Gospel, and, if the Evangelist 
has not told us what was actually said on the occasion, 
he has given us some thoughts that bear the stamp of the 
mint of Jesus, and which might well have been uttered on 
such an occasion. 

The central thought of this conversation with Nico- 
demus is : "Except a man be born from above, 1 he cannot 
see the kingdom of God." All good Jews were longing 
for the coming of the kingdom of God. The meaning of 
this word of Jesus is that only those see that kingdom 
whose souls are open to spiritual realities, whose spirits 
feel the movements of the tide of the Spirit of God. The 
current Jewish conceptions of the kingdom of God were 
largely physical — the coming of a physical Messiah, the 
winning of political freedom, the slaughter of earthly 
1 So the Greek ought really to be translated, 



230 Jesus of Nazareth 

enemies, the establishment of an earthly empire. If such 
visible events occurred, anybody who happened to be 
living at the time could see them. Such a conception of 
the kingdom of God fastened men's thoughts to the earth ; 
it made them feel that the chief end of life is material 
prosperity. This great word of Jesus to Nicodemus is 
in perfect accord with the rest of his teaching concerning 
the kingdom of God. Only those behold that kingdom 
who recognize that the real life of man is spiritual, not 
material, who> by communion with God are lifted above 
the selfishly human toward the unselfish and divine point 
of view, who learn to love, to think more of duties than 
of rights, in whose hearts the Spirit of heaven finds a 
congenial home, and through whose lives it sheds light 
upon their fellow men. St. John does not tell us how the 
conversation ended. In accordance with his literary habit 
he introduces Nicodemus, tells us something of the con- 
versation, then passes almost insensibly to the expression 
of reflections of his own, and allows Nicodemus to fade 
from our sight. 

We are inclined to believe that it was also while Jesus 
was in the neighborhood of Jerusalem in attendance at 
this feast that Martha, whose home was at Bethany, 
within two miles of Jerusalem, just on the eastern slope 
of the Mount of Olives, invited Jesus to her house. She 
had a sister Mary, and a brother Lazarus. They were the 
children of a man named Simon, who just at this time 
was banished from his home on account of a skin disease 
which was believed to be leprosy, from which he got the 
name of "Simon the leper." Lazarus seems to have been 
married and living in a neighboring village. The house 
was accordingly at this time called the house of Martha. 
Both Martha and Mary regarded Jesus as a most wonder- 
ful person, and each proceeded to show her regard and 



The Per cean Ministry of Jesus 231 

reverence for him in her own characteristic way. Mary 
regarded it such a privilege to have Jesus in their 
home and to be able to hear him talk, ask him questions, 
and hear his wonderful replies, that she just sat down be- 
fore him and forgot everything else as she listened to- his 
conversation. Martha's way of showing her devotion 
was quite different; she wished to give Jesus a supper 
that should do her credit as a housekeeper and should ade- 
quately honor her distinguished guest. As she went 
about the preparation of the supper, things did not go to 
her mind. There was much to do; she needed the help 
of her sister, and there sat Mary listening to Jesus, for- 
getful of all the ordinary duties of hospitality. Martha 
did not like to interrupt the flow of Jesus' words; she 
accordingly worked on alone for a long time, but, as the 
conversation continued and she found it impossible to 
carry out her plans alone, she finally lost all patience, 
and going to Jesus said : "Sir, dost thou not care that my 
sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that 
she help me." One cannot but have much sympathy with 
Martha. We have all, probably, been, like her, vexed 
with impractical people who under the influence of some 
great idea forget the ordinary necessities and amenities 
of life. But it would have been much better if Martha 
had spoken earlier, before she became thoroughly irri- 
tated. She might then have interrupted tactfully with- 
out being so rude to her guest, whom after all she deeply 
reverenced and dearly loved. 

Jesus' reply to Martha is differently recorded in differ- 
ent manuscripts. As it is given in the ordinary transla- 
tions of the Bible it is rather difficult to understand. 
Taking the most probable reading, we may reproduce it 
somewhat freely thus : "Martha, Martha, you are careful 
and troubled about an elaborate supper. Few dishes are 



232 Jesus of Nazareth 

needful, or only one, and Mary has chosen the good part, 
which shall not be taken away from her." By these words 
Jesus encouraged a simple life. He gently reproved 
elaborate living, which occasions fussing, worry, vexa- 
tion, and so perturbs the spirit by its cares as to embitter 
the soul, shut out the blue sky of joy, and make one petu- 
lant to those one loves best. He also teaches that the 
real riches of life are spiritual riches. Of these one can- 
not be robbed; no thief can take them; no moth or rust 
corrupt them; one is not deprived of them even by death. 
Probably most people in reading this story have more 
sympathy with Martha than with Mary, and in spirit re- 
coil somewhat from the thought that Jesus seems to have 
commended the impractical Mary. It should be noted, 
however, that Jesus said only enough (or at least only 
enough is reported in the Gospel) to convey the great 
lesson of the incident. He merely commends the simple 
life and declares that spiritual possessions no robber can 
take. He does not imply that it is necessary to be as im- 
practical as Mary was in order to possess these spiritual 
riches. That question is passed over. To have dwelt 
upon it would have seemed to justify Martha's fault of 
temper. As always in his teaching, Jesus was content to 
close the incident with a statement of eternal principles. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

JESUS SENDS OUT SEVENTY PREACHERS 

(Luke 10: 1-16; 25-37.) 

THE Feast of Tabernacles was now ended. It 
was unwise for Jesus at the moment to return to 
Galilee because Herod was seeking his life. The 
attempt of the Pharisees to arrest him at Jerusalem had 
revealed the fact that for a different, though somewhat 
similar, reason the Pharisees would do all in their power 
to check his work and destroy him. It was equally un- 
wise for him to continue permanently in Judaea. If the 
great truths which he came to teach — the fellowship of 
men with God which he had come to establish — were to 
find a lodgment in human thought and experience, it was 
necessary that his life in the flesh should continue a little 
longer, and that others should be trained to carry on his 
work. 

At this time, therefore, he summoned seventy more 
disciples and sent them out two by two to preach. We 
do not know the names of any one of these. Some have 
supposed that the story of the sending out of the seventy 
is only another version of the sending out of the Twelve. 
There is, however, no good reason for that opinion. One 
who had done the work that Jesus had done, and es- 
pecially one who possessed his attractive personality, 
must have gathered about him even in a few months far 
more than twelve devoted followers. Even if he had se- 

233 



234 Jesus of Nazareth 

lected only twelve to be continuously with him, it may well 
be that there were many others sufficiently devoted to 
him to make sacrifices for his cause, and sufficiently capa- 
ble to be trusted by him with his work. We do not think 
we are mistaken, therefore, in picturing to ourselves 
Jesus as gathering about him at Bethany, or at some 
other point in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, this group 
of seventy and sending them out in various directions to 
preach as he had previously in Galilee sent out the 
Twelve. Naturally he gave to them the same directions 
that he had given to the Twelve. Their work was the 
same, the conditions attending it were the same, naturally 
it was to be done under the same instructions. The 
Seventy were sent two by two "into every place whither 
he himself was about to come." As he himself proceeded 
to go into the region east of the Jordan, called at that 
time Peraea, to preach, it follows that the mission of the 
Seventy was mainly devoted to Peraea. Possibly some 
of them were sent to parts of Judaea, but probably most of 
them went to Peraea. 

The Gospel had been preached in Galilee by Jesus 
himself, and he had sent ten of the Twelve over it again. 
Such was the hatred of Jews by the Samaritans that it 
was impossible to preach it in Samaria, It would seem 
that James and John, who had accompanied Jesus through 
Samaria on the journey to the Feast of Tabernacles, 
were now left to preach in Judaea and did their work so 
well that they perhaps became known to the servants of 
Jewish authorities there. Possibly some of the Seventy 
also remained in Judaea to reinforce their efforts, but most 
of them went on into Peraea, toward which Jesus now set 
his face. In this Peraean ministry it seems probable that 
Jesus was joined at first by Peter and Andrew, who ac- 
companied him and gave him companionship in his labors 



The Per (Ban Ministry of Jesus 235 

and travels, as James and John had done on the journey 
through Samaria (see John 11 : 16). 

Probably it was at Bethany, before Jesus started for 
Peraea, or at Jericho, while he was on the way thither, 
that, as he was teaching, a certain lawyer stood up in the 
crowd and asked Jesus, "What shall I do to inherit eter- 
nal life?" The word "lawyer" conveys to us quite a dif- 
ferent meaning from that which it bore in ancient Judaea. 
The Jews had but one code of laws, in which religious 
and civil laws were all embodied. Civil law as well as 
religious was believed to have been laid down by God. 
Both kinds of law were included in religion. A lawyer 
was, therefore, an expert in religion, or was believed to 
be. He gave his life to the study and interpretation of 
God's revealed will. This man was, accordingly, one 
whom his brethren regarded as an expert in religious mat- 
ters, and his answer to Jesus shows that he possessed 
great religious insight. 

Jesus answered his question, "What shall I do to in- 
herit eternal life?" by asking another. "What is written 
in the law? How readest thou?" As an answer to this 
question the lawyer selected the most spiritual and ethical 
of the commands of the Pentateuch : "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy 
neighbor as thyself." The part of this reply about loving 
God is taken in substance from Deut. 6:4-5, which to 
this day forms the Jewish creed. The part about loving 
one's neighbor is taken from Lev. 19 : 18, 34. The two 
passages constitute the heart of religion and of ethics, and 
the linking of the two suggests the vital dependence of 
ethics upon religion. The man who could make such a 
reply deserves our admiration. Jesus apparently thought 
so, too, for he said: "Thou hast answered right; this do 



236 Jesus of Nazareth 

and thou shalt live." It was at this point in the conver- 
sation that the kind of training that the lawyer had re- 
ceived in the rabbinical schools began to show itself. 
The rabbis, in order that people might know every detail 
of what they had to do in order to observe the Law, had 
defined what was "work" and what was not "work" on 
the Sabbath, what was meant under all possible circum- 
stances by not reaping the "corners" of a field, etc. So 
this lawyer, in order that the whole matter might be 
quite clear, now asked: "Who is my neighbor?" The 
practical application of the splendid principles enunciated 
turned, he thought, upon the definition of this word, so, 
lawyer-like, he wanted a definition of it. 

In reply to this question Jesus told a story, or in other 
words uttered a parable. It was the parable of the Good 
Samaritan. He said, in substance, a man was going 
down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was and is a lonely 
road, infested in all ages with bandits. He was attacked, 
beaten, robbed, and left by the roadside half dead. A 
priest came along, saw him, and passed by on the other 
side of the road with averted face. The priest may have 
had business which he thought more urgent than a deed 
of mercy, so he turned away to avoid distressing himself 
with the painful sight. A Levite came along and, for 
similar reasons, avoided coming near the man, and went 
on without helping him. Then a despised heretic, a 
Samaritan, came along, saw the man, pitied him, dressed 
his wounds as well as he could, got the man up, put him 
on his own donkey (the donkey was the automobile of 
ancient Palestine), took him to an inn and cared for him 
all night. Next morning, when the Samaritan left, he 
gave the host two denarii, the equivalent of two days' 
pay, told him to care for the unfortunate man, and, if he 
had to spend more for him than the Samaritan had left, 



The Percean Ministry of Jesus 237 

it would be repaid when next the Samaritan came that 
way. 

Having told the story, Jesus asked, "Which of these 
three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell 
among the robbers ?" The lawyer replied : "He that 
showed mercy on him." Jesus' final word was : "Go, and 
do thou likewise." Thus Jesus taught that a poor, de- 
spised heretic may by true humanity more completely 
meet God's requirements than the orthodox ministers of 
religion, if they are not humane. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

JESUS BEGINS HIS FIRST MINISTRY IN PER^A 

(Luke ii : 1-36.) 

WE suppose that the parable of the Good Samari- 
tan may have been uttered at Jericho, because it 
refers to the dangers from robbers which have 
always beset travelers on the road between that city and 
Jerusalem, and because Jesus in his parables often used 
as material, features which were close at hand. As the 
journey towards Persea was continued Jesus, resting in 
a certain place, prayed, and as the Disciples beheld the 
effect of prayer upon him and realized how it refreshed 
him and renewed his strength, they made a request, which, 
perhaps, they had wished for a long time to make. They 
said : "Master, teach us to pray." They had been pray- 
ing all their lives, but they now realized that they did not 
understand the secret of prayer. Their souls had never 
been refreshed by prayer as the soul of Jesus seemed to be 
refreshed. So they said to him in substance : "Teach us 
the secret of prayer. John gave his disciples a form of 
prayer; give us one also." In reply Jesus, as reported in 
the earliest notes on the subject which have come down 
to us, 1 said : "When ye pray say : 'O Father, may thy name 
be reverenced as holy. Let thy kingdom come. The 
bread for the immediate future give us day by day. For- 

iSee Luke 11:2-4. 

238 



The Perczan Ministry of Jesus 239 

give us our sins, for we also forgive every one who is in- 
debted to us; and lead us not into temptation.' " These 
notes contain the substance of what is commonly called 
'The Lord's Prayer," though as the prayer is reported in 
the Gospel of Matthew x the sentences have been made 
less abrupt and the literary form improved. 

This prayer expresses the fundamental things in a re- 
ligious life. One who uses its words from the heart 
realizes that God is a tender Father; he reverences the 
name of God ; he worships the Person of God. He prays 
that God's rule may be established in the world; this is 
really a prayer that God's will may prevail in all things. 
The prayer for daily bread is a recognition that the sup- 
ply for the needs of the body comes really from God. 
While the form of the prayer, if taken literally, permits 
a very little supply of food in advance, it presupposes 
that men will need' to trust God to give them this supply 
continually. If they thus trust him, they will not be un- 
duly anxious. The prayer brings all secular life into the 
realm of religion. Then comes the prayer for forgive- 
ness, coupled with the statement that the worshipers have 
forgiven those who are indebted to them. This means 
the cleansing of the heart of grudges • and of all hard and 
bitter thoughts. Then, lastly, there is the prayer not to 
be led into temptation. 

This last petition has puzzled many. Temptation means 
"trial," "testing." In this world men cannot hope to 
escape it. Those who do escape and are never tested 
never attain really fine character. Those who court 
temptation, however, in a self-confident spirit are sure to 
fall, if they do not come to an unhappy end. It is only 
those who in self-distrust try to avoid temptation and 
who seek the help of God who can hope to meet it without 
iMatt. 6:9-13. 



240 Jesus of Nazareth 

disaster. This last petition of the model prayer thus is 
intended to prepare one for victory over temptation, 
though it can seldom be literally answered. 

Jesus not only taught his disciples this form of prayer, 
but he took the opportunity to teach them something of 
the necessity of persistent earnestness in prayer. People 
who merely repeat words do not pray. Real prayer is a 
genuine and sincere outreaching of the soul to God under 
the impelling power of a real sense of need. One who 
has such a feeling of need will not be easily discouraged. 
It was for the purpose of teaching this that Jesus now 
uttered the parable of the man who, aroused in the middle 
of the night by the arrival of an unexpected guest to 
whom he could not deny the rights of hospitality, found 
his larder empty and went to a neighbor to borrow some 
bread. The few rooms of the little house of the peasant- 
neighbor are strewn with mats, on which he and his 
family are sleeping. The neighbor at first refuses to put 
himself and his family to the inconvenience of getting up 
and looking for the bread which has been put away for 
the night, but he yields at last to the persistent entreaty of 
the man in need. Not only with this parable, but, ap- 
parently, by repeating some of the teaching which he had 
given on the mountain, Jesus impressed the lesson that 
real prayer is more than mere words. 

Another incident of this ministry, which probably oc- 
curred after Jesus had gone on into Persea, was the res- 
toration of speech to a dumb man. The people here, as 
in Galilee, thought Jesus was able to do this because 
Satan helped him, and Jesus sought to convince them of 
the absurdity of this reasoning, as he had sought to con- 
vince the Galilseans. 

At some point on this journey Jesus was asked to fur- 
nish some evidence of his divine commission — some won- 



The Per cean Ministry of Jesus 241 

derful proof that he was sent from God. This request 
led him to declare "This is an evil generation : it seeketh 
after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the 
sign of Jonah. For even as Jonah became a sign unto the 
Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this genera- 
tion." The Book of Jonah tells us that the people of 
Nineveh repented when they heard the preaching of 
Jonah. Jesus was a preacher. The men of his time were 
not, in great numbers, repenting at his preaching. So, 
declared Jesus, at the Judgment Day, the men of Nineveh 
shall condemn the men of this generation, "for they re- 
pented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater 
than Jonah is here." The whole point of the illustration 
turns on the tender consciences of the Ninevites which 
led them to repentance, and the seared consciences of 
those of Jesus' contemporaries, on whose hearts the great 
words of Jesus made no impression. 1 

By another Old Testament example Jesus condemned 
the intelligence of the men of his time. The Queen of 
Sheba is said in the first Book of Kings to have traveled 
all the way from South Arabia to Jerusalem to see the 
wisdom of Solomon. She had a penetrating insight 
which enabled her to recognize kindred insight when she 
met it, but to the minds of Jesus' contemporaries his 

1 Probably many will recall that the Gospel of Matthew, 12 : 40, 
gives a different turn to the story of Jonah. According to Matthew 
the point of the reference is that "as Jonah was three days and three 
nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of Man be three 
days and three nights in the heart of the earth." It is now pretty 
well agreed that Luke, who reports the reference to Jonah as we 
have explained it above, has correctly reported Jesus' words, and 
that the compiler of Matthew, writing under the spell of the grow- 
ing feeling that nothing happened in the life of Jesus that was not 
predicted in the Old Testament, departed, either consciously or un- 
consciously, from the actual words of Jesus, in giving the quotation 
such a turn, that Jonah's reported sojourn in the whale is made a 
prophecy of the length of time Jesus' body was in the tomb. 



242 Jesus of Nazareth 

penetrating understanding of the secret of life was shown 
in vain. Accordingly, Jesus declared that at the Judg- 
ment Day the Queen of Sheba would rise up and condemn 
the men of that generation. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

JESUS' FIRST MINISTRY IN PER^A 

(Luke u 137-^ '9-) 

THE writer of the document which tells us of Jesus' 
ministry in Persea mentions the names of no cities. 
We are accordingly unable to trace the movements 
of Jesus from place to place. How far to the east of the 
Jordan he went, whether he traveled southward to the 
east of the Dead Sea, or northward towards the Yarmuk, 1 
we cannot tell. We are only given certain events and cer- 
tain great sayings of Jesus, and these are not associated 
with definite localities. 

One of the incidents of this ministry occurred in the 
house of a Pharisee, who had invited Jesus to dine with 
him (Luke n : 37 ff.). Jesus went to the meal without 
first going through the ceremonial cleansing of his hands, 
at which the Pharisee was greatly astonished. There is 
nothing in the Pentateuch about washing the hands before 
meals, but, in order to avoid touching food with hands 
which might possibly have come into contact with some- 
thing ceremonially unclean, the Jews had developed many 
unwritten laws about washings. Later these were col- 
lected in the Talmudic tract called "Purifications," from 
which we learn that ceremonial washing before meals was 
regarded as a religious duty. In order to be perfectly 
sure of ceremonial purity, two washings before eating 
1 See Chapter I, p. 12. 

243 



244 Jesus of Nazareth 

were required, and one afterwards was customary. Some 
Pharisees also washed their hands between the courses. 
The washing was performed by holding the hands up- 
right, pouring the water over them, and letting it run 
down to the wrists. This washing was not performed, as 
in modern times, for the sake of avoiding germs and dis- 
ease, but because of the persistence of a once universal 
superstition that certain things possessed a mysterious 
power of bringing bad luck or exposing one to the divine 
displeasure. 

When Jesus perceived the Pharisee's astonishment he 
took occasion to teach him a lesson. This lesson Jesus 
considered so important that in various ways he insisted 
upon it when teaching many groups of people. It was the 
lesson that real cleanness must exist in the heart or out- 
ward cleanness was of little value. In speaking to the 
Pharisee Jesus taught this by pointing out the absurdity 
of washing the outside of a cup or platter and leaving 
the inside, from which one eats, unwashed. He went on 
to say that the Pharisees were like hidden tombs, over 
which men might walk and never know that they were 
near such things at all. 

A Jewish lawyer in the company then spoke up and 
said: ''Rabbi, in saying this, thou reproachest us also." 
This led Jesus to say: ''Woe to you lawyers also! for ye 
load men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye your- 
selves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers." 
This was Jesus' estimate of the men who were develop- 
ing the oral law. He went on to drive home the state- 
ment by saying that, though they built tombs to the 
prophets whom their fathers had killed, they shared in 
the guilt of their fathers. His point was that, reverenc- 
ing the past, trying to let the past entirely mould the life 
of the present, and rejecting the voice of God uttered to 



The Percean Ministry of Jesus 245 

their generation through such as John the Baptist and 
himself, they were real descendants of those who killed 
the prophets, and were as guilty as their fathers. Such 
conduct, Jesus went on to declare, brought upon the gen- 
eration which he was addressing, the guilt for all similar 
conduct which had preceded. 

On another occasion, when a great crowd had gathered 
somewhere out of doors, Jesus warned those who> counted 
themselves his disciples to "beware of the leaven of the 
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." Leaven, or yeast, was a 
favorite symbol with Jesus. Yeast spreads its influence 
until it has changed the character of a whole mass of 
dough, so, Jesus warned them, in the Pharisaical type 
of life, hypocrisy gradually pervades the whole life. 

The incident at the dinner given by the Pharisee had 
again brought into striking contrast the chasm which 
separated the religion of Jesus from that of the Pharisees, 
and on this occasion Jesus denounced them with terrible 
power. The Pharisees, he knew, were bitterly opposed to 
him. His type of religion and theirs could not coexist. 
There must of necessity be discord between them. The 
Pharisees were in power; they would persecute his fol- 
lowers. He accordingly warned his disciples not to fear 
those who could at the worst only kill the body, but to 
live in the fear of God and to dare to be loyal to him. 
He reminded them that in the market the poor, who* 
could afford little meat, could buy five sparrows for two 
farthings, 1 but, though these birds seemed so valueless, 
yet, declared Jesus "not one of them is forgotten in the 
sight of God. But the very hairs of your head are all 
numbered. Fear not : ye are of more value than many 
sparrows." With many such words as these did Jesus 

1 The coin mentioned in the original is the Roman as, worth about 
two-thirds of a cent 



246 Jesus of Nazareth 

endeavor to prepare his followers for the conflict which 
he now saw must come. 

On this or another occasion, when Jesus was surrounded 
by a multitude, a young man approached him and 
said: 'Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance 
with me." Jesus' treatment of this man is most interest- 
ing. Here was a question of "rights," of "social jus- 
tice." It was almost identical with the many questions 
which agitate men's minds to-day. We are often told 
that it is the first task of religion to settle these questions. 
Perhaps it is, but, if we are to follow the example of 
Jesus, we shall not try to settle them by direct attack, but 
by seeking to remove from human nature the covetous- 
ness from which injustice springs. Jesus turned to the 
man and said reprovingly: "Man, who made me a judge 
or a divider over you?" Then turning to those about 
him he said: "Take heed, and keep yourselves from all 
covetousness : for a man's life consisteth not in the abun- 
dance of the things which he possesseth." Here Jesus 
touched the nerve of social discontent; it is a mistaken 
notion of what the essence of life is — a wrong idea of 
what makes life valuable. A man's real life does not 
consist of things, but of goodness, purity, character. 
Covetousness, the desire for things, breeds bitterness; 
it makes one eat out his heart ; it drives him to wear out 
his life. One may be as covetous over a small sum as a 
large, over a little thing as a great. 

To reinforce the words he had just spoken, Jesus 
now told the story of the "Rich Fool," whose fields pro- 
duced so much that he had to build bigger barns, who 
congratulated himself that he was relieved from care 
for many years, that he could now live a merry life, but 
who then died, and with a lean and poverty-stricken soul 
went into the presence of God. This parable was fol- 



The Percean Ministry of Jesus 247 

lowed by many other striking words, in which Jesus 
urged his followers to trust in God, and not to let anxiety 
over food and material things absorb their thought, but 
so to live as to lay up treasure in heaven. To reinforce 
this thought, he told the story of some slaves whose 
master was away, who did not know when he would come 
back, but who were faithful to their duties, lest he should 
come suddenly and find them negligent. "So," said Jesus, 
"be ye ready." Peter thereupon said, "Master, speakest 
thou this parable unto us, or even unto all?" Jesus did 
not directly reply, but went on to say, in substance, that 
any servant who was faithful would be rewarded, and 
any that was negligent would be punished. 

The thought of the Heavenly Master and his earthly 
servants led Jesus again to portray the hardships which 
were sure to befall his disciples ; he accordingly proceeded 
to describe these hardships in some detail, and to brace his 
followers to endure them. These hardships were sure 
to be misunderstood. The Jews counted such things as 
misfortunes, and misfortunes were, they thought, evi- 
dences of the disfavor of God. At that very time some, 
who were standing by, reminded Jesus of how wicked 
some Galilaeans had been — so wicked that God had per- 
mitted Pilate to slay them while they were offering sacri- 
fice at Jerusalem. Jesus replied that neither these Gali- 
laeans, nor eighteen men accidentally killed by a falling 
tower in Siloam, were more sinful than other men, but he 
added, that if they did not repent, they would similarly 
perish. To emphasize the lesson, he concluded by telling 
the story of a man, whose vineyard bore no fruit for 
three years, and who in consequence, ordered it to be cut 
down. With such incidents and teaching this first minis- 
try in Peraea was filled. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE FEAST OF DEDICATION 

(Luke 13 : 10-35 5 John 10 \22 ff.) 

AT some point in Persea, probably in one of the towns 
/-\ in the Jordan valley, Jesus was, on a Sabbath day, 
■*" -*- teaching in a synagogue. In the congregation was 
a woman suffering from some infirmity which had bowed 
her together so that she was quite unable to stand erect. 
She had been for eighteen years a sufferer. Jesus, with 
his radiant, magnetic life healed her. At this time there 
were Pharisees in Palestine wherever there were syna- 
gogues. With their belief that it was a sin to treat 
chronic disease on the Sabbath we have already become 
familiar. 1 They believed that sickness of that sort could 
be relieved on any other day of the week and that the 
Sabbath should not be profaned by performing on it even 
a deed of mercy which could be done as well on another 
day. They accordingly said : "There are six days in 
which men ought to work : in them, therefore, come and 
be healed and not on the day of the sabbath." Jesus 
answered : "Ye hypocrites, doth not each one of you on 
the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead 
him away to watering ? And ought not this woman, being 
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, 
these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond 
on the day of the sabbath?" With this reply his op- 
ponents were put to shame. They realized that their strict 

1 See Chapter XXII. 

248 



The Percean Ministry of Jesus 249 

rules made them more considerate of animals than of hu- 
man welfare. The people, on the other hand, rejoiced 
greatly at the wonderful things which Jesus had done. 

It was at this time that Jesus, in trying to teach how 
silently and from what small beginnings the kingdom of 
God comes, repeated two parables, the Mustard Seed and 
the Yeast or Leaven. The mustard seed is a very small 
seed, but the mustard plant grows, in the hot Jordan 
valley, to a height of ten to fifteen feet. 1 So the kingdom 
of God, starting from a few people who determine to do 
God's will in the world, will grow till it embraces man- 
kind. Yeast — a bit of yeast — buried in a mass of dough, 
works silently. In a few hours its influence has spread 
from particle to particle until the nature of the whole 
mass is changed. Jesus said that the kingdom of God 
would come in that way. Not by great upheavals and 
violent changes, but as silently as a magnet works upon a 
piece of steel, will the kingdom of God come. 

Jesus now started back toward Jerusalem. As he was 
going along some Pharisees asked him whether, when 
God's kingdom comes, many will be saved. It was a 
point which deeply interested them. Two* conflicting 
points of view struggled in their minds for the mastery. 
On the one hand as Jews they desired to believe that, on 
account of God's promise to Abraham, all Jews would be 
saved as a matter of course. On the other hand, they 
despised the common people of their own land because 
they were ignorant of the Law and did not spend their 
time, like the Pharisees, striving to keep the Law in all 
its details. Such people they regarded as accursed. Now 
Jesus had been likening the kingdom of God to a great 
tree. He had implied that many would be saved. As 
he journeyed, a man asked the question, "Are they few 

1 See Chapter I, p. 4. 



250 Jesus of Nazareth 

that are saved?" Perhaps he put it in this way to see 
whether Jesus really differed from the Pharisees. Jesus 
did not directly reply. He said in substance that the 
gateway to salvation is a narrow gateway; many will 
seek to enter in and will not be able; strive to enter in 
while you have opportunity, for by and by the oppor- 
tunity will have passed, and then there will be great sor- 
row on the part of those who through neglect have lost 
their chance. 

As he was saying these things some one said to him : 
"Make haste and flee, for Herod will kill thee." Persea, 
like Galilee, was under the rule of Herod Antipas. Jesus 
had, apparently, thought himself safe for a time from 
Herod's interference, since Persea was at some distance 
from Herod's residence at Sepphoris in Galilee. By this 
time, however, news of Jesus' work in Persea had spread 
to Galilee and Herod was on the lookout for him. The 
purpose of Herod had become known, and the Pharisees, 
anxious to rid themselves of Jesus' presence, endeavored 
to frighten him away by the fear of Herod. Herod the 
Great and all his descendants were unscrupulous politi- 
cians, cruel and ruthless, where their own interests were 
concerned. Antipas was, if possible, one of the least 
noble of the sons of Herod. In replying to the Pharisees 
Jesus employed the only term of disrespect to be found 
among all his recorded sayings. He called Herod a 
"fox." He said : "Go and say to that fox, Behold I cast 
out demons and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and 
the third day I am perfected." Then Jesus added as 
though to himself, "I must go on my way to-day and to- 
morrow and the day following: for it cannot be that a 
prophet perish out of Jerusalem." 

We must not understand the term "third day" to mean 
that Jesus thought that he had only three days more to 



The Perce an Ministry of Jesus 251 

live. The Jews said : "yesterday and the third day" when 
they meant "formerly ;" they may also have said "to- 
morrow and the third day," when they meant "in the 
future." The saying betrays Jesus' conviction that he 
must ultimately die — that the forces which were array- 
ing themselves against him in hostility would finally 
accomplish his death, but that he would die in Jerusalem. 
Then as he thought of the city, the place where the Jews 
had for centuries believed that God had chosen to dwell, 
the city which had witnessed the preaching of so many 
and such noble prophets, the city which had in olden 
time rushed on to her doom in spite of all the prophets 
could do, the city which he himself loved, but which, 
turning a deaf ear to his words, was rushing on to an- 
other horrible fate, he exclaimed in pitying love: "O 
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and 
stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I 
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gath- 
ereth her own brood under her wings and ye would not !" 
Our sources of information tell us nothing more of 
Jesus' journey. We next find him in the Temple at 
Jerusalem at the Feast of Dedication. 

The Feast of Dedication is not mentioned in the Old 
Testament. It was a comparatively new festival, insti- 
tuted in memory of a notable event in the Jewish struggle 
for liberty in the early part of the Maccabsean revolt from 
Syria, which began in the year 168 B.C. In that year 
Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, a vain man of er- 
ratic character, determined to blot out the Jewish religion 
and compel the Jews to worship Greek gods. As one step 
in the accomplishment of this purpose he commanded 
swine to be offered in sacrifice to Zeus on the great stone 
altar in the Temple courts at Jerusalem. This was done 
in December of the year 168 B.C. This effort of Antio- 



252 Jesus of Nazareth 

chus caused the Jews to revolt under the Maccabsean lead- 
ers, and three years later, in December 165 B.C., Judas 
Maccabasus drove the Syrians from the Temple fortress 
at Jerusalem, a new altar was built, and the Temple was 
rededicated to Israel's God. The rejoicing was great, and 
the event was considered so important that it was com- 
memorated every year in December by the festival which 
our Lord now attended. True, no mention of his pres- 
ence at this feast is found outside the Gospel of John, 
but the correctness of the tradition recorded in John on 
this matter is made highly probable by the statements 
concerning a journey to 1 Jerusalem recorded in Luke 13. 
It was while at Jerusalem at this time that Jesus, St. 
John tells us, spoke, while walking in Solomon's Porch 
of the Temple, the parable of the Good Shepherd. Our 
knowledge of this parable comes only from the Gospel 
of John. It is a beautiful parable, but, as it stands, it 
is coupled with that Evangelist's belief that Jesus as- 
serted to the Pharisees his Messiahship and argued about 
it in public with them, — a belief which we have seen in 
an earlier chapter 1 to be in contradiction to the other 
Gospels as well as to historical probability. As to the 
exact form in which Jesus originally spoke the parable, 
we cannot, therefore, be certain. When the feast was 
over, Jesus went back beyond the Jordan and resumed 
his ministry in Persea. 2 

1 Chapter II. 

2 See John 10:40. 



CHAPTER XLI 

JESUS' SECOND MINISTRY IN PER^A 

(Luke 14: 1-17: 10.) 

X X THEN the Feast of Dedication was completed, 
YY Jesus returned again to Peraea. We do not 
know to what part of that country he went, 
but probably it was a different part from that in which 
he had been before the feast. Peter and Andrew now 
went on some mission of ministry by themselves, and 
Jesus appears to have been joined by Matthew and 
Thomas (see John 11 : 16). The account of this second 
Peraean ministry not only tells us nothing as to< the locali- 
ties which Jesus visited, but contains very few statements 
of events. The narrative is filled with what Jesus said 
rather than with accounts of what he did. 

We are told that Jesus was invited by a Pharisee to a 
meal on the Sabbath Day, and that there was a man in 
the company who had dropsy. Jesus healed him and thus 
provoked another discussion with the Pharisees about 
the propriety of healing chronic cases of sickness on the 
Sabbath Day. Such incidents happened in all parts of 
the country where Jesus went. Perhaps it was while he 
was a guest in this same house that he noted how certain 
of those invited were careful to seat themselves in the 
places which were regarded as the most honorable. 
Jesus accordingly gave them some very sound teaching 
as to the wisdom and importance of humility (Luke 14: 
7-14). 

253 



254 Jesus of Nazareth 

When Jesus had finished speaking about this, one of 
the company said : "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in 
the kingdom of God." It was at that time a Jewish be- 
lief that the kingdom of God would be inaugurated with 
a great feast, and this guest turned the thoughts of the 
company from the present banquet to that of the Mes- 
sianic age. This led Jesus to tell the parable of the man 
who made a great supper and invited a large number of 
people. When the hour for the feast came, he sent his 
servant to inform the expected guests that the feast was 
ready, whereupon they all began to excuse themselves. 
One had this business to attend to, another that, another 
was occupied with domestic affairs. When the servant 
reported this, the host sent out into the street and sum- 
moned the poor, the lame, the blind — any one who would 
come — and with these guests celebrated his feast. In 
this way Jesus warned his hearers that, if the Jews, who 
had been bidden before all others to the feast of the 
kingdom of God, should fail to accept the invitation, the 
privileges of that kingdom would be thrown open to the 
Gentiles. 

Once, as he was going from place to place, followed 
by a multitude, Jesus spoke of the sacrifices involved in 
following him, warning those who followed of the strong 
resolution and steadiness of purpose required of those 
who would be his disciples. He said, in substance : "If 
any man comes after me and does not love his father 
and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and 
sisters, yea and even his own life less than me, he cannot 
be my disciple." This was Jesus' strong way of saying 
that a follower of his should love him and the will of 
God more than his earthly kindred. As one reads this 
saying in Jesus' own words, he is impressed by the strong 
and almost vehement language in which it is expressed. 



The Per (Ban Ministry of Jesus 255 

It does not seem too much to suppose that his own strug- 
gle in leaving a mother and brothers and sisters whom 
he loved as only he could love, and the memory of what 
it had cost him to incur their disapprobation and cut him- 
self off from them, gave a certain intensity of feeling to 
his words on this occasion. 

He also drove home this lesson by some parables which 
show how those who are successful in any undertaking 
count the cost before they begin it. Lest, however, his 
followers should be discouraged by thinking too much 
about the hardships which may come from serving God, 
Jesus spoke three parables to show how God seeks men, 
saves men, gives men happiness, and rejoices with them 
and over them. These are the parable of the woman 
who could not rest till she had found her lost coin, the 
shepherd who risked his life to find a lost sheep, and 
the father who waited, watched, and longed for the re- 
turn of a wayward and wandering boy, till the boy came 
back (Luke 15). With great joy the father greeted him, 
forgave him, re-clothed him, and feasted with him. At 
some time during this ministry in Peraea Jesus spoke 
the parable of the unjust steward — a steward, who, when 
he knew he was to be discharged, employed his master's 
property to place people under obligation to him, so that 
they would take care of him, when he had been discharged 
and could no longer earn a living. The point of the 
parable is that men take care to provide for the part of 
their future which is to be passed in this world, but are 
careless about making similar provision for the life be- 
yond. 

At another time Jesus uttered the parable of the rich 
man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). The story pre- 
sents two contrasts. The first is that between a deli- 
cately clad and well-fed rich man and an unfortunate 



256 Jesus of Nazareth 

and afflicted beggar who lies at his gate. The second is 
that between these two people in the life to come. There 
the beggar is in bliss; the rich man in torment. The 
details of the story cannot be regarded as a literal pic- 
ture of the future life. The purpose of it is to teach 
men that earthly possessions and material enjoyment do 
not constitute real and lasting life, and that permanent 
happiness may be the possession of those whom men con- 
sider unfortunate here. 

At another time Jesus tried to teach his disciples to be 
kind to all and to do harm to no one. He pointed out 
that, in the complex conditions of life on the earth, it is 
impossible that things will not happen which will cause 
men to stumble. "But," said Jesus : "woe to that man 
through whom the occasion (of stumbling) cometh !" He 
added: "Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother sin, re- 
buke him; and if he repent, forgive him." Thereupon 
one of the disciples asked how many times he must for- 
give his brother, if he sinned against him — as many as 
seven ? Jesus answered : "I say not unto thee, Until seven 
times : but until seventy times seven." 

One of the Apostles then said: "Lord, increase our 
faith!" Jesus' reply may be translated: "If you had 
faith of the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this 
black mulberry tree, be thou up-rooted and be thou 
planted in the sea and it would obey you." This was a 
striking way of saying, if you had faith, you could do 
things which seem impossible. In Syria and Palestine 
men have been accustomed to speak in such paradoxical 
and exaggerated figures of speech for at least three thou- 
sand five hundred years. Such sayings were never meant 
to be taken literally, and in those lands are not misunder- 
stood as they have sometimes been in these Western lands. 

Our knowledge of this Peraean ministry concludes with 



The Per cean Ministry of Jesus 257 

a parable which was intended to warn disciples of Jesus 
against self-conceit. Masters do not thank their slaves, 
said Jesus in substance, for doing their duty. So, he 
continued, "When ye shall have done all the things that 
are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants, 
we have done that which it was our duty to do." 



CHAPTER XLII 

THE SEVENTY RETURN AND REPORT TO JESUS 

(Luke 10: 17-24; Matt. 11:25-30.) 

AT some time before the Persean ministry ended, 
the Seventy returned and made a report to Jesus 
- of the success of their work. The Gospel of Luke, 
in order to tell the whole story of their ministry within 
the compass of a few verses, gives the account of their 
return immediately after the story of their commission. 
There can, however, be no doubt but that their ministry 
occupied a considerable time, and, as the whole period 
covered by Christ's Persean ministry was probably not 
more than three months, we cannot be far wrong in sup- 
posing that the return of the Seventy to him occurred 
just before he left Pergea for the last time. 

The mission of the Seventy had been successful. They 
returned in high spirits. They said : "Even the demons 
are subject unto us in thy name." They had exercised in 
his name that magnetic, psychic power which enabled 
them to cure hysteria and nervous troubles ; people had in 
consequence flocked to them for aid, and had given heed 
to their teaching. Naturally, the disciples were elated. 
Jesus was also pleased. Working under his direction and 
in his name, these men had risen into a new world of en- 
deavor and efficiency. This was the first fruit of his 
labor through others. It was an example of what might 
be accomplished by his disciples after he had gone. Jesus 
took it as a sign of the final triumph of right and the 

258 



The Per (Ban Ministry of Jesus 259 

overthrow of wrong. He exclaimed : "I beheld Satan as 
lightning fall from heaven." For the moment the age- 
long struggle with wrong seemed to his mental vision to 
be summed up in a dramatic ejection of Satan from the 
realm of God. Then, turning to the Seventy, Jesus told 
them in the figurative language of the day that he had 
given them authority to do his work and that, as they 
went about it, nothing should do them real harm. His 
actual words were : "Behold, I have given you authority 
to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the 
power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt 
you." Lest, however, the disciples should become con- 
ceited and self-opinionated because of their success, Jesus 
said to them : "In this rejoice not, that the spirits are sub- 
ject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in 
heaven." 

The report of the Seventy and the evidence which it 
gave that the work of revealing God to men, which Jesus 
had begun, would go on after he had passed away, was 
the occasion of one of the few intense psychological ex- 
periences which we can trace in the life of Jesus. As at 
his baptism the consciousness of his Messianic mission 
dawned upon his mind, so now there opened to his con- 
sciousness a clearer view than he had before had of the 
function of his person in making men understand what 
God is like and in drawing men to God. The early docu- 
ment quoted by St. Luke reports this experience and the 
words which Jesus was heard to utter. It says : "In that 
same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I 
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou 
didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, 
and didst reveal them unto babes : yea, Father ; for so it 
was well-pleasing in thy sight." 

After thus expressing to God his gratitude that he was 



260 Jesus of Nazareth 

reaching the common people, of whom mankind is most 
largely composed, he continued as though speaking to 
himself : "All things have been delivered unto me of my 
Father; and no one knoweth who the Son is, save the 
Father; and who the Father is, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him." Just as at 
his baptism Jesus had found in his own nature that which 
justified him in believing that he was the Messiah and had 
the Messianic work to do, so now, measuring himself 
against the great task of bringing God to men and men 
to God, he found that in his own nature which justified 
him in calling himself God's Son in a unique sense. We 
cannot now penetrate his mind enough to understand all 
the depth of his thought, but we can understand enough 
to feel sure that he regarded himself as holding a rela- 
tion to God that other men did not. This relation im- 
posed on him the joyful duty of bringing others to God. 
It was Jesus' consciousness of what he was which helps 
to prove correct that opinion which his disciples at a 
later time held of him, and which has given the name of 
Jesus a place beside the name of God himself in the 
Christian world. 

With the words of Jesus which we have been consider- 
ing, the Gospel of Matthew couples another great saying 
of his. Some have doubted whether it belongs here, but 
it is the belief of the present writer that it does. 1 This 
saying shows that the thought of Jesus did not long dwell 
upon himself. He was too> unselfish to let it do that. 
His mind at once turned back to the world and the world's 
great need, which it was his great task to meet. As he 
thought of the unspeakable anguish of the burdened 

1 The writer has given the reasons which have led him to this 
belief in a book entitled, "At One with the Invisible," edited by 
E. Hershey Sneath, New York, the Macmillan Company, 1921, pp. 
73-77. 



The Per (Ban Ministry of Jesus 261 

world, his heart went out to it in great tenderness. He 
longed to relieve its need. So, turning to those who 
stood by, he said : "Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in 
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my 
yoke is easy, and my burden is light." It is hard to 
imagine any one, who appreciates, even in a small mea- 
sure, the weariness, restlessness, and agony of the world, 
and their almost infinite depth, facing this seething mass 
and saying, "Come, all of you to me and I will give you 
rest !" He who could utter such words, must, one feels, 
either be a madman or the possessor of some heavenly 
secret, which he has learned in a unique association with 
God. Millions have, by experience, proved that Jesus 
was no madman. They have accepted his invitation and 
found the rest that he promised. With all their hearts 
they believe him to be what he was conscious that he was, 
the Son of God. 



BOOK V 
JESUS AVOIDING HIS ENEMIES 

Chapters XLIII-L 



CHAPTER XLIII 

THE ILLNESS OF LAZARUS AT BETHANY 

(John ii ; Luke 17: 11-18: 14.) 

WE have already had occasion to note 1 the friend- 
ship for Jesus of two sisters who lived in 
Bethany, near Jerusalem. These sisters were 
peculiarly situated. Their father was a leper 2 and so, if 
living, was banished from his family; their mother was, 
apparently, dead. They had a younger brother, of whom 
they were very fond. The boy's name was Lazarus. 
While Jesus was occupied with his second Persean minis- 
try, Lazarus fell desperately ill. 3 In their extremity the 
sisters naturally thought of Jesus, their friend. He had 
healed many ; they hoped that he could heal their brother. 
They accordingly sent a messenger to tell Jesus. The 

1 See Chapter XXXVI. 

2 Mark 14:3; Matt. 26:6. Perhaps, as has been conjectured, 
"leper" was a mistake for "jar-maker." 

3 The writer is well aware that many modern scholars regard the 
whole story of Lazarus as unhistorical, since it occurs only in the 
Gospel of John, and is, they think, introduced into it for doctrinal 
purposes. He is, however, convinced that there is in the Gospel of 
John a genuine thread of historic tradition. There is no more reason 
for regarding the story of Lazarus as without historic foundation 
than the story of the daughter of Jairus or that of the son of the 
widow of Nain. If we are right in our reconstruction of the out- 
line of the life of Jesus, the incidents at Bethany occurred while 
ten of the Apostles were away from Jesus gaining experience in 
missionary work. Only Thomas and Matthew were with him. This 
is, probably, why no account of the sickness and raising of Lazarus 
is found in the Synoptic Gospels. Matthew, we believe, when he 
wrote his "Oracles of the Lord," included in it only sayings of the 
Master, and Peter, from whom Mark obtained his information as to 
Jesus' work, was not with Jesus at this time. 

265 



266 Jesus of Nazareth 

messenger found him somewhere in Peraea and informed 
him of the illness of his friend. 

Jesus was not unmindful of the claims of friendship. 
He loved the little family at Bethany, but it seems prob- 
able that the messengers from Bethany arrived just as 
the Seventy whom Jesus had sent out to preach were re- 
turning to him. The weeks were passing swiftly; the 
fateful Passover time would come not many weeks hence ; 
the time of Jesus was short; he must attend first to the 
great affairs of the Kingdom by first receiving the re- 
port of the Seventy. Two days, therefore, passed before 
Jesus was free to start for Bethany. During this time 
Lazarus fell into a comatose state, which was mistaken 
by his sisters and their friends for death, and was buried. 
Jesus himself tells us that it was only a. sleep (John n : 
1 1 ) . It is quite unnecessary to suppose that Lazarus was 
really dead; that was only the belief of Palestinian 
peasants. 

Jesus, having received the Seventy, having given them 
the teaching noted in the last chapter, and experienced 
the exaltation of spirit there recorded, started for Jeru- 
salem. His journey, if we have rightly grouped the 
events in this part of his life, was not without incident. 
At one point of the journey, as he came near the boun- 
daries of Galilee and Samaria, ten lepers met him near 
an unnamed village and cried to him from afar to have 
mercy on them. He directed them to go and show them- 
selves to the priest and offer for their cleansing the sacri- 
fices demanded in the Pentateuchal law. The men had 
such faith in Jesus that they obeyed him. They started 
to find the priest, who was probably at Jerusalem, two 
or three days' journey distant, and, as they went, the in- 
fluence of their faith wrought the cure of the skin dis- 
eases from which they were suffering. It will be re- 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 267 

membered that all sorts of skin diseases were classed as 
leprosy. 1 One of these men, a despised Samaritan, when 
he realized that he was healed, turned back, looked Jesus 
up, glorified God for his cure, and fell on his face at 
Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Jesus was deeply touched 
by his gratitude. Of the ten, only the heretical Samaritan 
had the nobility of feeling to come back and thank his 
benefactor! 

As he journeyed on toward Jerusalem, some plied 
Jesus with questions. They asked him if the kingdom 
of God would appear right away. He told them that the 
kingdom of God did not come in a form such that men 
could see it ; that the kingdom of God is within. He did 
go on to say that the kingdom could not come till the Son 
of Man had suffered, but that, when it did come, every 
one would know it. On the way, too, he gave those about 
him some teaching about prayer. Then as now, people 
prayed for something and, because they did not imme- 
diately get it, they lost faith in prayer and ceased to 
pray. Jesus, therefore, told them the story of an unjust 
judge, who refused for a long time to do' justice to a cer- 
tain poor widow, but who was finally, by her persistent 
requests, persuaded to grant her petition. Jesus did not 
mean that God is an unjust Judge ; he only meant to teach 
that, if persistence has such power with a bad man, it 
will have much more power with a just God. 

Somewhere on the journey he saw certain Pharisees, 
exhibiting their satisfaction in their own righteousness 
and their contempt for others — "the people of the land," 
as they called them. He accordingly told the parable of 
the Pharisee and the Publican — the two men who went 
up into the Temple to pray. One was a self-satisfied 
Pharisee, the other a despised and hated publican. One 
1 See Chapter XIX, p. 144. 



268 Jesus of Nazareth 

said "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, 
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 
I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I pos- 
sess." The Pharisee did not think of God; he thought 
only of himself. He did not compare himself with God; 
only with other men. He worshiped only himself. His 
heart was not exalted; his motives not cleansed. The 
publican, on the other hand, knew that he had nothing 
of which to boast. His thoughts dwelt upon God and 
God's perfections. He dared not look up. He could 
only say, "God, be merciful to me a sinner." "This man," 
said Jesus, "went down to his house justified rather than 
the other." Then Jesus laid down a rule of life which 
we might paraphrase thus: "Conceited people shall be 
humbled; humble people shall be exalted." 

With such discourse as this, Jesus came at last to 
Bethany. By this time four days had passed since Laza- 
rus was buried. Mary and Martha were mourning, and 
their house was filled with many of their friends who had 
come out from Jerusalem to condole with them. The 
characteristics of the two sisters stood out in their grief 
as clearly as it had in their social life. The news that 
Jesus was coming at last passed from person to person. 
Some one, looking out from the hills about Bethany, had 
seen him winding his way up from Jericho. Word went 
from mouth to mouth, and some one ran and told the 
sisters that at last Jesus was near. When they heard 
this, Martha went out to meet him, but Mary sat still 
where she was. Contemplative and brooding in her 
moments of joy, she was in grief inert and melancholy. 
Martha, on the other hand, eager and active, met Jesus 
and said, "Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother 
had not died !" 

There then followed a conversation on Lazarus, death, 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 26g 

and the resurrection. As that conversation is reported 
in the Gospel of John, we cannot be sure that it is just 
as it was spoken, for the author of the Gospel, as we 
have seen, employs some freedom in reporting Jesus' 
words. We do feel sure, however, that the great thoughts 
in this conversation go back in some form to Jesus. They 
bear the stamp of his immediate insight into truth, his 
faith in God, his calmness, and his supreme confidence. 
For centuries these thoughts have been one of the main 
consolations of those bereaved. 

At the request of Jesus, they conducted him to the 
tomb where Lazarus was buried. It was, like so many 
tombs about Jerusalem, cut out of solid rock, with an 
entrance guarded by a rolling stone. As they went, the 
grief of the sisters found relief in tears, many of their 
friends were weeping, and such was the sympathetic na- 
ture of Jesus that he wept with them. When they ar- 
rived at the place of burial, Jesus asked that the stone 
might be rolled away. He then called Lazarus from his 
comatose state, as he had previously called the son of the 
widow of Nain and the daughter of Jairus. The writer 
of the Gospel believed that Jesus had called from the 
grave a man who had been dead four days, and, doubt- 
less, that was the popular belief at the time in Jerusalem. 
Indeed, the tradition, as now recorded, reports that Jesus, 
after saying that Lazarus was asleep, also said that Laza- 
rus was dead (John n : 14) ; there are, however, many 
reasons for thinking that this is one of the additions to 
the story naturally made to it during the seventy years 
between the occurrence and the writing of the Gospel. 

This story of Jesus' friendship, his long journey to 
help, his sympathy, his insight into the great mysteries of 
life, and his healing, health-giving power is one of the 
choicest in the Gospels. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

JESUS AVOIDS HIS ENEMIES 

(John 1 1 : 54 ; 4 : 4-43 ; Luke 4 : 16-30 ; Mark 6 : 1-6 ; 
Mark 7 : 24-30. ) 

THE four Gospels arrange the story of the life of 
Christ so differently that it is not possible at a 
number of points to harmonize them. Any out- 
line of the succession of events must, therefore, be at 
certain points uncertain. The order of these events which 
seems to the present writer most probable is, that Jesus 
had now reached a point in his ministry when circum- 
stances had so shaped themselves that, for the accom- 
plishment of his purpose, partial hiding, combined with 
rapid movements from place to place, was necessary. He 
had found it prudent to leave Galilee because Herod An- 
tipas had superstitiously mistaken him for John the Bap- 
tist and sought his life. For a time he had labored in 
Persea, which, though under Herod's control, was further 
removed from his residence, but knowledge of his pres- 
ence there had reached Herod, and it was no* longer safe 
to continue his teaching there. Gradually through the 
months the hatred of the Pharisees for him had been ac- 
cumulating. In Galilee they had sided with the Herod- 
ians ; in Persea they had conveyed to him Herod's threats ; 
in Jerusalem, their stronghold, they longed to put Jesus 
out of the way. The belief that he had raised Lazarus 
from the dead, for the moment, again centered the 
thought of the Pharisees upon him. Political and eccle- 
siastical forces were arrayed against Christ; sooner or 

270 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 271 

later they would accomplish his death. Jesus did not 
fear death; he well understood that it was a part of the 
great mission which he had undertaken. If, however, his 
disciples were to be prepared to carry on his work after 
his enemies had wrought their will upon him, he must 
avoid his enemies for a time longer, and impart to those 
who stood nearest to him more of his secret. Ten of the 
Twelve were still in distant places engaged in their travel- 
ing mission. He must effect a union with these and 
make sure that a chosen few understood the nature of his 
Messianic claims. We believe it was this purpose which 
controlled his movements for the next two or three weeks. 1 

At first, in order to escape public notice, Jesus with 
his two Disciples, Matthew and Thomas, withdrew to a 
little city called Ephraim (John 11:54). It was the 
Ophra, in the land of Benjamin, mentioned in Josh. 
18: 23, now called Et-Tayyibeh. It was situated on one 
of the easternmost of the hills of the central range of 
Palestine. To the east of it the ground slopes rapidly to 
the Jordan valley. Here for a few days Jesus rested. 
He and his Disciples could behold in beautiful panorama 
the Jordan valley and the majestic mountains of the trans- 
Jordanic country which rise beyond. 

After a short rest there, Jesus and the two Disciples 
traveled rapidly northward through Samaria. It was on 
this journey, which probably occurred about the end of 
January (there were yet four months to harvest 2 ), that 
the conversation with the woman of Samaria took place, 
the account of which we have in the fourth chapter of the 
Gospel of John. We have to remember that that Gospel 
is not arranged chronologically, but topically. Jesus and 

1 This outline of the events in this part of the life of Jesus was 
suggested by the late C. A. Briggs, "New Light on the Life of 
Jesus," New York, Scribner, 1904, Chapter IV. 

2 John 4:35. 



2.72 Jesus of Nazareth 

his Disciples, traveling northward, came about noon, 
weary, thirsty, and hungry, to Jacob's well, a very, very 
old well in the plain just to the east of Mount Gerizim 
and in full view of Mount Ebal. Modern travelers fre- 
quently reach this spot about noon and stop here for 
similar reasons. 1 Jesus was weary and sat down by the 
well to rest. His two Disciples went meantime to the 
neighboring city of Shechem, which lay in the valley be- 
tween Ebal and Gerizim, to buy some food. Jesus was 
thirsty, and some sixty feet below him there was an 
abundance of cool water, but he had nothing with which 
to draw it. 

While he sat, there came a woman from Sychar, a vil- 
lage at the foot of Mount Ebal, perhaps a mile distant, 
to draw some water. Jesus asked her for a drink. The 
woman at once recognized that he was a Jew, and ex- 
pressed surprise that he should ask a favor of her, a 
Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans had, as a rule, no deal- 
ings with one another. As a result of this a conversation 
followed of which we have a report in the fourth chap- 
ter of John. As the conversation is reported to us, the 
writer of the Gospel represents Jesus as telling this 
woman, a perfect stranger, that he was the Messiah. As 
this was something that his Disciples did not yet know, we 
can only set down this feature of the report to the au- 
thor's loss of perspective on this point. His differences 
from the synoptic writers as to this have been noted in 
other connections. Some other features of the conversa- 
tion bear, however, the stamp of Jesus. When the 
woman tried to get Jesus to commit himself on the sore 
point in the dispute between Jews and Samaritans, as to 
whether Jerusalem or Gerizim was the right place to 

1 See, for example, G. A. Barton's "A Year's Wandering in Bible 
Lands," Philadelphia, 1904, p. 172. 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 273 

worship God, Jesus gave utterance to one of the most 
fundamental truths in religion. "God," he said, "is 
Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in 
spirit and in truth." The time would come, he said, when 
the temples on Zion and on Gerizim would be deserted, 
but the worship of God would still go on. In substance he 
declared that worship is in a way independent of temples ; 
it is a matter of the heart. God seeks as his worshipers 
those who reverence him in genuine sincerity, whose 
spirits seek his Spirit. 

Jesus and his two Disciples in due time resumed their 
journey and, traveling on northward, arrived at Nazareth 
on the eve of the Sabbath. Nazareth was one of the 
places where Jesus had been able to do no mighty work. 
The Nazarenes did not believe in him. They had known 
him as a carpenter; they could not think of him as a 
prophet. Jesus' own brothers shared this feeling. They 
did not believe in him until after his death. It is hard 
for us poor mortals to appreciate the glory in common 
folk, and especially in those who stand nearest to us; 
and the people of Nazareth, including the brothers and 
sisters of Christ, were very human. Jesus, who felt the 
end of his earthly ministry near, longed to do something 
for the people among whom he had spent so many years. 
So, although Nazareth was within three miles of Sep- 
phoris, the residence of Herod Antipas, he went into the 
synagogue on that Sabbath, and took his old place at the 
lectern and read the lessons for the day. 

The prophetic lesson for that day was from the sixty- 
first chapter of Isaiah : 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 

Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to 
the poor ; 



274 Jesus of Nazareth 

He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, 

The recovering of sight to the blind, 

To set at liberty them that are bruised, 

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." 

After the reading was completed, Jesus was for a 
moment silent, while all eyes were fixed upon him. 
Then with the words, "To-day hath this scripture been 
fulfilled in your ears," he began an address which made 
all wonder at his gracious words. But in spite of his 
eloquence, they could not believe that the wonderful 
words of prophecy were fulfilled by him ! So they began 
to say, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and 
brother of James and Joses, and Judas and Simon and 
are not his sisters here with us?" Doubtless they con- 
tinued, "What presumption for him to claim that he can 
fulfill all these glorious prophecies !" Jesus thereupon re- 
minded them of an old proverb which ran, "A prophet 
is not without honor, save in his own country." Then 
he pointed out that both Elijah and Elisha had been com- 
pelled to perform some of their most important work 
upon foreigners because of a lack of faith on the part of 
their countrymen. At this his old neighbors who were in 
the synagogue became so angry that they led him to the 
brow of the hill above the city to do' him harm, but he, 
escaping from them, went on his way, marveling at their 
unbelief. Thus was Jesus' love for his townsfolk re- 
quited, and his desire to serve them thwarted. 

The uproar in the synagogue at Nazareth made it im- 
portant that Jesus should not stay in the neighborhood. 
The palace of Herod Antipas was only three miles away, 
and his public appearance at Nazareth would soon be 
known there. He must escape at once from Herod's 
dominions. The quickest way to do that was to go into 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 275 

Phoenician territory to the south of Tyre. This was 
accomplished by a journey of a few miles. 

Probably it was at this time that Jesus left the soil of 
Israel and passed into a foreign territory as described in 
Mark 7 : 24-30. This part of the Phoenician territory 
lies between Galilee and the Mediterranean coast. It is 
a narrow bit of country, geographically belonging to 
Galilee, but which the Hebrews had never been able to 
capture. On its soil Jesus was beyond Herod's power. 
Here he and his two Disciples remained for a little time, 
until the attention of the authorities in Galilee should be 
fixed upon something else. 

Phoenicia was, however, so near that Jesus' fame as a 
healer had preceded him there; so, one day during his 
stay, a Phoenician woman whose little daughter was af- 
flicted with some nervous trouble, that was believed to 
be caused by demons, came and threw herself at his feet 
and besought him to heal her daughter. Jesus' sympathy 
went out to everybody, but, apparently he wished to draw 
out a little expression of how this woman felt about the 
Jews and their God. This woman had lived all her life 
in the neighborhood of Jews. She had some degree of 
familiarity with their religious beliefs. Jesus would heal 
the soul as well as the body. Accordingly, to bring out 
the woman's attitude toward the deeper things of life, 
he made answer to her request : "It is not meet to take the 
children's bread and cast it to the dogs." The woman's 
answer may be translated, 'True, Lord; yet the puppies 
under the table eat of the children's crumbs." To the dis- 
cerning insight of Jesus this reply disclosed the woman's 
soul. He said, "Great is thy faith. For this saying go 
thy way; the demon is departed from thy daughter." The 
evangelists tell us that from that hour the little girl was 
healed. The psychical power of Jesus had done its work. 



CHAPTER XLV 

THE RETURN OF THE TWELVE 

(Mark 6:30-46; 7:31-37; 8:1-10; Matt. 14:13-23; 
5 : 32-38; Luke 9 : 10-17; John 6: 1-14.) 

THE stay of Jesus on Phoenician territory was 
brief. Soon, by a secret journey, he passed 
through Galilee, crossed the Jordan, and came to 
the eastern coast of the Sea of Galilee in the territory of 
the Decapolis. Jesus' absence from the region had not di- 
minished his reputation as a healer. As soon as it was 
known that he had returned, there was brought to him a 
deaf man who had an impediment in his speech. The 
Gospel of Mark tells us in a vivid way the means Jesus 
used to heal him. He took him apart from the multitude 
where there was some privacy, put his fingers in the man's 
ears, and touched the man's tongue; then, looking up to 
heaven, he sighed and said in the Aramaic language, 
"Ethpathakh," which means, "be opened." The man re- 
turned to the multitude cured, and the people were greatly 
moved, saying of Jesus: "He hath done all things well; 
he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak." 
It was probably at this time and place that the Twelve, 
who* had been for weeks preaching two by two, came to- 
gether with Jesus once more, and told him all that they 
had done and all that they had taught. Jesus desired op- 
portunity to talk with them. This the eagerness of the 
multitude did not permit. Their needs were many; their 
hopes, revived by the healing of the deaf man, great. 

276 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 277 

Jesus, therefore, took his Disciples apart to a deserted 
and desolate spot, that they might have opportunity for 
rest and conversation. The journey was made by boat, 
and the people saw Jesus and his Disciples pushing off, 
recognized them, and followed along the shore. When 
the boat reached its destination, therefore, a throng had 
already gathered at the place, and still others were coming. 
The eagerness of the multitude touched the heart of Jesus. 
He thought of them as sheep without a shepherd, so he 
spent the day teaching them many things. 

When the evening drew near, the Disciples begged 
Jesus to send the people away, but we are told that he 
declared that they ought, before leaving for their homes, 
some of which were distant, to have something to eat, 
and that he took what little food could be found in the 
company, blessed it, multiplied it, and fed the whole 
multitude. The account of this wonderful work of 
Jesus is told more often than any other incident in his 
life. It appears six times in the pages of the Gospels. 
Once in each of the four Gospels it is said that with five 
loaves and two fishes he fed five thousand people, and in 
Matthew and Mark a variant of the narrative represents 
him as feeding four thousand people with seven loaves 
and a few small fishes. Nothing in the life of Jesus is 
better attested than this. 

These facts have, in this scientific age, perplexed many 
devout people. The more we learn of God's ways of 
working by studying his works, the more certain it seems 
that nature's laws are God's habitual ways of acting, and, 
so far as we can learn from study based on accurate ob- 
servation, he does not vary them. While our modern 
knowledge of faith-healing and mind-healing makes cred- 
ible to us the healing miracles of Jesus, many keenly feel 
that the nature miracles fall in a different class, and can- 



278 Jesus of Nazareth 

not be explained as really happening in the way they are 
described. This miracle of the feeding of the multitude 
is, as a nature miracle, especially perplexing. Many ex- 
planations of it have been offered. 

(1) It is said that in the ancient world, which pos- 
sessed no knowledge of natural law, it was expected that 
every religious teacher or holy man should perform 
miracles, and, since the merest hearsay evidence was re- 
garded as sufficient ground for believing in a miracle, 
stories of miracles naturally grew up about every person 
of striking personality or of peculiar sanctity. The story 
of the feeding of the five thousand, some have urged, 
grew up under the influence of this atmosphere, without 
real foundation in fact. 

(2) Others, holding almost the same views, find the 
motive for the telling of such a story about Jesus as this, 
in the desire to represent him as outdoing the deeds at- 
tributed to Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament. 
Such people make much of II Kings 4 : 42-44. It should 
be noted that, on purely historical grounds, neither of 
these explanations is wholly satisfactory. One may 
grant that the expectation of miracle led men to magnify 
natural occurrences into miracle; he may grant that the 
comparison with Elijah and Elisha may possibly have 
had some influence ; but one who tests the Gospel records 
at all points by all available historical means finds them 
so simple and straightforward, that he is slow to believe 
that this incident could have found its way into all the 
Gospels without some historical foundation. 

(3) Still others have supposed that the account of the 
miracle as it has come down to us originated through the 
misunderstanding of a figure of speech. Those who 
would thus explain it suppose that those who on that 
memorable day listened to the teaching of Jesus were so 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 279 

absorbed in his teaching that they forgot their lack of 
food, and later, when they told of their wonderful ex- 
perience, they described the way the teaching of Jesus 
had lifted them out of themselves by saying that Jesus 
had wonderfully fed them. Later, it is supposed, this 
figure of speech was taken by those who heard it literally, 
and so the story of a feeding with bread was substituted 
for a feeding of souls. 

(4) Still others think that the difficulties of the story 
to modern minds arise from an exaggeration of the 
numbers. They recall how easy it is, as a story passes 
from mouth to mouth, for numbers to be exaggerated. 
They note that in two forms of the story the number fed 
is said to have been four thousand, while in the other 
forms it is said to have been five thousand. In two forms 
of the story the number of loaves is said to have been 
seven and the number of fishes "a few," while in the 
other accounts the number of loaves is said to have been 
five and of the fishes two. They, accordingly, think that 
what really happened was that Jesus and his Disciples 
shared their food with those whom he had taught, and 
that the people were few enough so that all were measura- 
bly satisfied, but that, as the story was afterward re- 
ported, the numbers were exaggerated. While one has 
to admit that either of the third or fourth explanations 
is possible, neither one seems at all certain. 

(5) A German scholar suggested some years ago that 
the historical fact in the story was that Jesus adminis- 
tered to this throng a sacrament in anticipation of his 
death and of the institution of the Eucharist. This 
scholar believes that Jesus did not explain to the people 
the meaning of the sacrament and hence it was misunder- 
stood and so grew into the narrative of the miracle which 
we now have. This theory is, in the opinion of the pres- 



280 Jesus of Nazareth 

ent writer, very improbable. It is very unlikely that Jesus 
enacted a meaningless enigma before the multitude. 
Whatever he did appears always to have had some rela- 
tion to the needs of the people to whom he ministered 
and to their understanding. 

(6) Still others have reasoned that^there is in the story 
no breaking of natural law. Jesus was, they say, God in- 
carnate. In multiplying the bread and fishes he simply 
hastened natural processes. According to this view the 
multiplication of the loaves and fishes was simply an in- 
stance of rapid growth and multiplication. Even for the 
many who would be ready to grant that Jesus was God 
incarnate, this explanation seems very unsatisfactory. 
Dead fishes do not multiply by natural processes, and bar- 
ley which has been ground and baked does not grow and 
multiply ! 

(7) Bishop Chandler, of Bloemfontein, South Africa, 
an ardent believer in evolution, has written a little book 1 
in which he explains the mystery of this miracle, and in- 
deed of all the miracles of Jesus, as belonging to a sphere 
of life that is above us, and is consequently not to be ex- 
plained. He notes that in the vegetable realm things are 
natural which, from the point of view of a mineral, would 
be miracles; that in the animal kingdom things naturally 
occur which would be miracles for a vegetable; that in 
the human world things are done as a matter of course 
which would be miracles for an animal. Jesus, God in- 
carnate, was, he holds, the representative of an order of 
life as much superior to ordinary human life as human 
life is superior to animal life, hence analogy would lead 
us to expect as normal for him acts which would be 
miraculous for a man. This is an argument which ap- 
peals to many types of Christians, but which naturally 

1 "Scala Mundi," London, 1920. 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 281 

makes no appeal to those who do not share the Bishop's 
faith. 

From whatever point of view one may look at this 
wonderful narrative — whether one looks through the 
medium of faith or of science — whether one finds an ex- 
planation which satisfies his reason or frankly confesses 
the actual occurrence a puzzle to him — one thing is cer- 
tain : Jesus either did or said something on that day that 
made men feel in a most unusual way that they were in 
the presence of the manifest power of God. It was this 
which made an indelible impression and led to the six- 
fold telling of the story in our Gospel records. Any dif- 
ficulty which a modern reader may find in the story 
arises from the fact that our theories of the constitution 
and order of the world differ from those of the men of 
the first century. However great this difference of theor- 
ies may be, it should not and need not rob us of the power 
to appreciate the greatness and the marvel of Jesus. His 
matchless personality speaks to us by the very impression 
which it made on those who passed this account in its 
various forms on to us, and we wrong ourselves and im- 
poverish the moral life of the world, if we permit a 
change in theories of the universe to dim in our thought 
the picture of Jesus, or to lessen his influence upon our 
lives. 



CHAPTER XLVI 

JESUS ONCE MORE IN CAPERNAUM 

(Mark 6:47-52; 7:1-23; Matt. 14:24-26; 15:1-20; 
John 6: 22-59.) 

WHEN the multitude had gone away, Jesus urged 
his Disciples to embark in a boat and precede 
him to Bethsaida. This they undertook to 
do, and Jesus retired alone to a neighboring hill to pray. 
Prayer was the source of the strength of Jesus' life. God 
was very real to him, and after a day of strenuous labor 
— teaching, sympathizing, or healing — he instinctively re- 
sorted to prayer as a means of refreshment for weariness 
and of renewing his diminished power. 

It will be remembered that on the Sea of Galilee high 
winds are often experienced, and that night, as the Dis- 
ciples rowed toward Bethsaida, the winds were against 
them. They had to pull hard at the oars and progress 
was slow. The last watch of the night found them still 
toiling at the oars, and their destination not yet reached. 
It was then, according to the narratives of Mark and 
Matthew, that another nature miracle occurred. Jesus 
was seen by them walking on the water. They were 
frightened, thinking him a ghost, and cried out, where- 
upon Jesus reassured them, came up into their boat, and 
the wind ceased. Matthew adds to the story that Peter 
tried to go to Jesus walking on the water and would have 
sunk had not Jesus rescued him. 

How is a modern reader to regard this story? It 

282 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 283 

creates for him many of the difficulties of the story of 
the feeding of the five thousand. Was Jesus superior to 
the law of gravitation, or should some other explanation 
be sought? Some have supposed that the Disciples were 
nearer shore than they thought, that Jesus was really 
walking along the shore, and that in the darkness they 
mistakenly supposed him to be walking on the water. 
Others think that this is only another form of the stilling 
of the wind by Jesus as told in Mark 4:35-41. Still 
others think that the story of the miracle arose from the 
materializing of figurative language. Of course others 
take it as literally true, and Bishop Chandler of Bloem- 
fontein would justify this by arguments based on the 
theory of evolution. Whatever attitude a modern reader 
may take toward these explanations, two things are cer- 
tain : first, the presence of this story in the Gospels is 
witness to the extraordinary character of Jesus and the 
impression which he made on those who knew him; and 
second, whether Jesus was or was not superior to the 
laws of gravitation has no bearing upon his spiritual 
character or the authority of his religious and ethical 
teaching. Spiritual and ethical values are quite distinct 
from the ability of a wizard to suspend natural laws and 
perform the tricks of a magician. The real character 
of Jesus and the marvelous insight into religious and 
moral truth which he possessed we know from other 
evidence. If he could walk on water, it would not 
strengthen that evidence. If it could be proved that he 
could not, it would not diminish it. 

The boat in which the Disciples were crossing the sea 
seems to have been driven by the wind from its course. 
Instead of landing at Bethsaida, at the northeastern 
corner of the Sea of Galilee, they landed at the plain of 
Gennesaret, at the northwestern corner, between Mag- 



284 Jesus of Nazareth 

dala and Capernaum. Here Jesus was at once recog- 
nized, and from the neighboring towns people hastily 
brought their sick to be healed. 

After healing those who sought his help, Jesus entered 
the city of Capernaum, where for a time he had made 
his home. The Gospel of John tells us that here people 
who' had witnessed the feeding of the five thousand came 
to him, and that a discussion with the Pharisees followed 
as to the nature of the real bread of life. In the course 
of this discussion Jesus shocked and startled them by 
saying : ' 'Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and 
drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves." The 
Jews and even the disciples of Jesus were offended or 
perplexed by it. It was, indeed, an astonishing saying, 
but it is one which the history of religion is helping us 
to understand. We now know that from the earliest 
times men have employed such language to indicate that 
they had obtained the intelligence, courage, and all the 
virtues of gods or heroes. The words of Jesus were 
accordingly a striking, even a startling way of saying 
that unless men caught his spirit and his attitude toward 
God and life they did not really live. That this was 
really his meaning is explained in John 6: 63. 

While at Capernaum Jesus had a discussion with the 
Pharisees about the details of the Oral Law. It came 
about in this way : Some Pharisees who had come from 
Jerusalem criticized Jesus and his disciples for eating 
with unwashed hands. The question at issue was not 
unlike that raised in the house of a Pharisee in Peraea 
with whom Jesus had dined some weeks before, 1 but now 
there were several Pharisees present, and Jesus took 
occasion to go more deeply into the principles which 
should control in such matters. We learn from the Tal- 
"* 1 See Chapter XXXIX. 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 285 

mud that, although there was no command in the Old 
Testament requiring such washing, the rabbis, after the 
custom became a part of their Oral Law, were very strict 
about it. To omit it would lead, they held, to temporal 
destruction, or at least to poverty. One rabbi who dis- 
regarded this law was actually excommunicated. Such 
strictness in matters which stand in no vital relation to 
religion or morality, combined, as it was, with a reason- 
ing which often enabled them to disobey ethical com- 
mands, aroused Jesus' indignation. 

This inconsistency he proceeded to expose, by citing 
a custom which then prevailed in Jewish circles, but 
which the majority of the rabbis themselves in follow- 
ing centuries condemned. By pronouncing the w r ords 
"It is Corban," which meant a "sacrifice" or a "thing 
offered to God," the Jews taught that the thing or things 
so referred to had been vowed to God. A man might 
by the utterance of these words deprive his father or 
mother of all rights of support either from his property 
or his labor, and the rabbis of the time of Christ thought 
that the vow had to be fulfilled. Jesus forcibly told 
them that this "tradition" set aside the fifth Command- 
ment, "Honor thy father and thy mother," and that they 
were "making void the word of God by their traditions." 
It was a stinging rebuke, but in course of time the ma- 
jority of Jewish rabbis took Jesus' view of the matter, 
and believed that, when the honor of parents is involved, 
one is absolved from a vow. This is known from the 
Talmud, which was compiled some centuries later. 

In this discussion, however, Jesus went even further. 
He went not only back of tradition, but back of the laws 
relating to food in the Pentateuch itself. He declared, 
"There is nothing from without the man that going into 
him can defile him; but the things which proceed out 



286 Jesus of Nazareth 

of the man are those that defile the man." The say- 
ing was an enigmatic one and even the Disciples did 
not understand it. After the Pharisees had gone, 
they asked Jesus what he meant, and Jesus then ex- 
plained to them that food, passing through the digestive 
organs, does not change a man's ethical character. Mor- 
ally he is not "defiled" by it. He is "defiled" by evil 
thoughts, and these proceed from the heart or mind of 
man. By evil thoughts his judgment is warped, his will 
guided into sinful courses of conduct; he is then "de- 
filed." It was thus that covetousness, lust, pride, fool- 
ishness, defile a man. Mere food does not. It is an 
utterance which reveals that surpassing insight which 
makes Jesus easily the Master of the world in religion 
and ethics, but it took years of experience and struggle 
to convince his disciples of its truth. At the moment 
its application to Jewish institutions, if perceived at all, 
was not convincingly grasped by their minds. 



CHAPTER XLVII 

JESUS TELLS HIS DISCIPLES THAT HE IS THE MESSIAH 

(Mark 8:27-9: 1; Matt. 16: 13-28; Luke 9: 19-27.) 

BY this time it had become unsafe for Jesus to stay 
longer in the dominions of Herod Antipas. The 
fame of his cures of diseases, his address in the 
synagogue, and his discussions with the Pharisees had 
all set in motion rumors which would soon reach Herod, 
even if the Pharisees did not make to Herod a complaint 
against him. Besides, Jesus had some important things 
to say to his Disciples, which could not well be said in a 
place like Capernaum, where multitudes were thronging 
about him continually to be healed or to listen to his 
words. He, accordingly, left Capernaum and went with 
his Disciples northward up the Jordan valley to Caesarea 
Philippi. 

Caesarea Philippi was in the territory ruled by a son 
of Herod the Great, named Philip. It was near the spot 
where the city of Dan (Judges 18:29) had stood in 
Old Testament times. It is a region of wondrous 
beauty. It lies in a valley between the hills, where the 
Jordan pours forth from an underground cave, a river 
full-grown. Just to the northeast Mount Hermon, the 
highest peak in Palestine, rises to a height of more than 
9,300 feet. For about eight months in the year it is 
capped with snow, and its white summit, an object beau- 
tiful in the landscape, is visible for many many miles. 
Herod Philip, who reigned from 4 B.C. to 34 A.D., had 
rebuilt the city and named it Caesarea, for the Roman 

287 



288 Jesus of Nazareth 

emperor, but it was usually called Csesarea Philippi, to 
distinguish it from the Csesarea on the Mediterranean 
coast of Samaria. From Capernaum to Csesarea Phil- 
ippi is a journey which takes about twelve hours on 
horseback. As Christ and the Disciples traveled on foot, 
the journey probably occupied two days. 

Jesus, having trained his Disciples for months as to 
the nature of the kingdom of God, and knowing that he 
must now soon be parted from them, desired to make 
them understand, if possible, the nature of his Messiah- 
ship and its relation to the real kingdom of God. So, 
during the journey, while they were resting by the way, 
he approached the subject by asking them, "Whom do 
men say that I am?" In answer the Disciples repeated 
what they had heard men say. Some said he was John 
the Baptist risen from the dead ; others that he was Eli- 
jah, whom the Prophet Malachi (Mai. 4:5) had said 
that God would send before the Day of Judgment; still 
others said that Jesus was one of the old prophets risen 
again. After listening to these replies, Jesus asked: 
"But whom do you say that I am?" Peter answered: 
"Thou art the Messiah," or in Greek, "the Christ." At 
last Peter, this impulsive, good-hearted, human Disciple, 
had divined the Master's secret. This Master whom they 
loved, this worker of wonders to whom the afflicted 
flocked, this marvelous teacher, was the long-expected 
Messiah. The Gospel of Matthew reports some words 
of commendation which Jesus is said to have spoken to 
Peter for his insight — words which attribute that in- 
sight tO' a divine revelation — words, too, which show 
that, because he had perceived this truth in advance of 
others, Peter became the first stone in a new temple of 
God, and the first interpreter of the laws of life in the 
kingdom of God. These words of commendation are 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 289 

expressed in Jewish and Oriental imagery and have re- 
ceived in the course of the centuries some strange in- 
terpretations. 

Realizing how different his own ideas of Messianic 
work were from those of his Jewish brethren, Jesus gave 
his Disciples very strict orders not to tell any one that 
he was the Messiah. He knew that, if the report of 
this was spread abroad, it would create great disturb- 
ances in which life would be sacrificed. Having given his 
Disciples strict orders not to tell his Messianic secret to 
others, he tried to make them understand what the events 
of the next few weeks would be. The time of the Pass- 
over in Jerusalem was not far off. When he and they 
went to it, the chief priests would reject him, and would 
accomplish his death. That, however, would not end 
his work or his influence, for he would, though cruci- 
fied, continue to live. 

Such a Messianic career was so different from all 
their expectations that the Disciples could not believe it 
true. Peter, especially, elated by his success in grasp- 
ing before others the fact of Jesus' Messianic character, 
addressed Jesus in a tone of rebuke: "Be it far from 
thee, Lord : this shall never be unto thee." Jesus there- 
upon reproved Peter with the strong words: "Get thee 
behind me, Satan . . . thou mindest not the things of 
God, but the things of men." The term "Satan" means 
"opponent," "adversary." It was not easy for Jesus 
to face the suffering which he saw before him. He, like 
us, loved life and disliked pain. He had struggled with 
himself to bring himself to accept the course which he 
saw was God's will. The words of Peter appealed to 
the human shrinking from suffering which was within. 
It was for this reason that he repelled them with such 
vigorous language. 



290 Jesus of Nazareth 

Jesus then went on to tell his Disciples that the course 
on which he was entering was in principle the one which 
all his disciples must follow. His words were : "If 
any man would come after me, let him deny himself, 
and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever 
would save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose 
his life for my sake shall find it." It is a universal law 
of life. Those who are unselfish and think of loyalty 
to God and of service to men more than they think of 
themselves, are the people who really live. They ac- 
cumulate the true riches — the love of grateful hearts, 
clean consciences, and the approval of God. Love, serv- 
ice, and sacrifice are the laws of the kingdom of God. 
The statement must have seemed to the Disciples a hard 
one; perhaps it made the outlook for the future gloomy. 
We may be sure, however, that Jesus said to them much 
more than got written down. It was at least eight or 
ten years before the earliest account was written, and 
by that time only some of his most striking sentences 
were remembered. When we remember how hard it is 
for one of us to reproduce a conversation on the morn- 
ing after it occurs, we are sure that on all important 
occasions Jesus said much more than is reported. On 
this occasion he comforted and instructed them with 
words such as only he could utter. Of these words all 
that are now recorded are, "There are some here of 
them that stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, 
till they see the kingdom of God come with power." 
This meant that, though the law of the kingdom was 
difficult and seemed strange, those then living should see 
its beginning and the appearing of its power. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

THE TRANSFIGURATION 

(Mark 9:2-32; Matt. 17: 1-23 \ Luke 9:28-45.) 

JESUS with his Disciples remained in the neighbor- 
hood of Caesarea Philippi for a week. Doubtless 
during this time he had many talks with them about 
the great things of the kingdom of God. It was prob- 
ably during this week that he told them the story of his 
experience at his baptism and of his temptation. Jesus 
had so much to tell men of God that it was not his way 
to talk much of himself, but now the necessities of the 
situation demanded that he draw aside for a little the 
veil from his inner life and disclose to his Disciples the 
reasons for his conviction that he was the Messiah. If 
the Disciples were to accept him as Messiah, it was im- 
portant that they should understand why he knew him- 
self to be such, and also that they should understand the 
true nature of his Messianic kingdom. The simplest 
and most direct way to accomplish both these objects 
was to tell them of the divine call and inward assurance 
of divine son-ship which he had experienced at his bap- 
tism, and of the struggles he had undergone in the wild- 
erness, when he determined what kind of a Messiah he 
would be and how he would use the wonderful power 
of which he had then so recently become conscious. It 
was for these reasons that he related to his Disciples dur- 
ing these days that bit of autobiography which now 
forms such an important part of the story of his life. 

291 



292 Jesus of Nazareth 

Later, when the Gospels were written, the story of the 
voice heard at his baptism and of his temptation was 
placed in their chronological position near the beginning 
of the Gospels, but we cannot be wrong in supposing 
that the facts were given to the Disciples during this week 
at Csesarea Philippi. 

Little by little, as the days passed, the Disciples began 
to understand Jesus' words, though they did not grasp 
their full meaning, but they did become somewhat ac- 
customed to thinking of their loved Friend and Master 
as the Messiah. After six days Jesus took with him 
Peter, James, and John, and with them climbed one of 
the spurs of Mount Hermon to pray. Probably it was 
toward evening. Leaving the Disciples a little apart, he 
went aside and knelt, in full view of them. As he 
prayed, a wonderful thing happened, which the Disciples 
did not at all understand. Possibly, as they expressed 
in Oriental imagery the impressions made on their un- 
critical minds, they made what they saw appear to be 
more of a physical marvel than a modern observer would 
have done, but this is how Peter described it to the 
Evangelist Mark: "He was transfigured before us; and 
his garments became glistering, exceeding white, so as 
no fuller on earth can whiten them. And there ap- 
peared unto us Elijah with Moses, and they were talking 
with Jesus." What is the meaning of this statement? 
What really happened here? It is both right and rever- 
ent that we should seek to understand it. In reply to 
these questions it must be said that, although we may 
not pretend to know all about it, two facts are clear. 
There was something unusual in the appearance of Jesus 
which attracted the notice of the Disciples and the story 
represents a new appreciation of Jesus on the part of 
the Disciples themselves. 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 293 

As to the change in the appearance of Jesus, it should 
be noted that changes which were perhaps similar have 
been sometimes noted in mystics and in persons of un- 
usual psychical gifts, when they experienced during prayer 
marked exaltation of spirit. Their faces have seemed 
altered, their forms changed, their figures glorified, and 
they are said to have radiated light. St. Luke, in speak- 
ing of this experience of Jesus, says, "The fashion of 
his countenance was altered." Matthew heightens it 
thus : "His face did shine as the sun." What actually 
happened to the appearance of Jesus was, then, in all 
probability, similar to that which has happened to others, 
only more extraordinary by as much as his psychical pow- 
ers were greater than those of others. The three Dis- 
ciples who saw Jesus that evening knew nothing of the 
experiences of mystics ; they were so astonished by what 
they saw that they were unable to distinguish between 
Jesus and his garments, so, afterwards, when they came 
to describe the scene, they could only speak and write 
as they have in the accounts which have come down 
to us. 

But, if this understanding of the event represents 
what really took place in our Lord, what is to be under- 
stood by the vision of Moses and Elijah talking with 
Jesus? One can understand how Jesus, gaining new 
strength in prayer and communion with God, could ex- 
perience such exaltation of spirit that new light shone 
from his face, new dignity from his figure, and that his 
whole aspect was changed. But can we suppose that 
Moses and Elijah came to talk with him? One thing is 
certain : whether Moses and Elijah were actually 
there or not, this part of the account shows that the 
Disciples had gained a new appreciation of Jesus. Moses 
was the emancipator of Israel and her reputed lawgiver 



294 Jesus of Nazareth 

— the founder of the Hebrew nation. Elijah was the 
first of the great prophets; his ministry began a new era 
which transformed the religion of Israel. At the be- 
ginning of the Christian era, Elijah was regarded as a 
kind of semi-heavenly guardian of the Jewish people. 
Moses and Elijah were the two greatest of the religious 
founders of the past. That these two ancient worthies 
should now seem to the Disciples to be there on Mount 
Hermon talking to Jesus, is clear proof that at last the 
Disciples were putting Jesus in his right place. They 
were seeing him in proper perspective. He had told 
them that he was the Messiah; he had related to them 
the experiences which led him to know this; now they 
had adjusted their minds to this fact. They placed Jesus 
in the same class as Moses and Elijah, the founders and 
heroes of their religion. He was greater than they. 
Moses and Elijah came to talk with him — to pay him 
homage. 

Peter was so impressed by the scene and the experi- 
ence that he wished to prolong it. Conscious that God 
was unusually near, he proposed to build three booths 
that the heavenly visitors might not depart. The rainy 
season was not over, and a dark cloud floated by and 
enveloped the mountain. Perhaps it thundered; all 
through the Old Testament time the Hebrews had re- 
garded thunder as the voice of God. Now the thunder, 
if thunder it was, seemed to the Disciples to proclaim and 
confirm the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, God's own 
chosen Son. When the cloud had passed, the wonderful 
scene had also departed; the Disciples found themselves 
alone with Jesus, and Jesus appeared as usual. 

How long Jesus and the three Disciples were upon the 
mountain we do not know. If it was evening, as seems 
probable, when they made the ascent, they did not come 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 295 

down until morning, for, when they again reached the 
base of the mountain, they found a crowd about the 
nine Disciples who had remained below. A man had 
brought to them his son, an epileptic boy, and the Dis- 
ciples were vainly trying to cast out the demon which, 
they believed, possessed the lad. As they approached, 
the boy fell into one of his paroxysms. Jesus asked the 
father how long the child had been so afflicted, and the 
father, after telling him, made this appeal to Jesus : "If 
thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help 
us." It was then that Jesus said, quoting the man's 
words, "if thou canst," as though there was some ques- 
tion of Jesus' ability: "If thou canst! All things are 
possible to him that believeth." The father then cried 
out with tears, "I believe; help thou mine unbelief." 
Whereupon Jesus healed the child. 

Soon after this Jesus and his Disciples journeyed back 
again toward Capernaum, and, as they went, Jesus tried 
again to make them understand that great suffering and 
even death awaited him. 



CHAPTER XLIX 

JESUS' LAST VISIT AT CAPERNAUM 

(Mark 9:33-40; 10:1-31; Matt. 17:24-27; 18:1-6; 
19: 1-20: 16; Luke 18: 15-31.) 

ON the journey to Capernaum from Caesarea 
Philippi, the Disciples, many of them, and some- 
times all of them, walked apart from Jesus, 
earnestly talking among themselves. After arriving at 
Capernaum, when they had reached the house where 
they were to lodge, Jesus asked them what they had been 
so earnestly talking about during the journey. At this 
question the Disciples with downcast faces kept silence. 
They were very human folk, these pupils of the Great 
Master. To' them it meant just one thing for Jesus to 
be the Messiah ; he would, they felt sure, be the monarch 
of an earthly kingdom. Naturally each one of them 
was ambitious. In a kingdom there would be offices to 
fill. Some of these would be of greater dignity and 
responsibility than others. Each was eager to obtain 
the most honorable place, and as they had walked along 
they had disputed as to which of them should be the 
greatest and obtain the most important post. They 
knew enough of the spirit of Jesus and of his point of 
view to know that wrangling over such a subject would 
not please him, so they hung their heads in silent shame. 
Jesus understood human nature and he also understood 
his fishermen. He really needed no one to tell him of 
what they had talked. Taking in his arms a little child 

296 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 297 

and sitting down in their midst, he told them that no one 
can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he enters it as 
a little child ; that he who would be first shall be last of all 
and servant of all; and that whoever receives in Christ's 
name one who possesses the childlike spirit receives 
Christ himself. While he was talking in this way John 
spoke up and said: "Master, we saw one casting out 
demons in thy name and we forbade him because he fol- 
lowed not us." Jesus answered : "Forbid him not : for 
there is no man who' shall do a mighty work in my name 
and be able quickly to speak evil of me. For he that is 
not against us is for us." Thus did Jesus state a great 
principle, which his followers have often forgotten. Had 
they but remembered it, there need not have been such 
unhappy divisions in Christendom. 

As Jesus continued his conversation with his Disciples 
he dwelt upon the figure of discipleship suggested by the 
little child, saying that whosoever gave one of these chil- 
dren of his a cup of cold water to drink should not lose 
his reward, but whoever caused one of them to stumble, 
it would be better for him had a millstone been hanged 
about his neck and he drowned in the depths of the sea. 

The little company of humble travelers had arrived 
at Capernaum just at the time when the Jews were col- 
lecting the Temple tax. This was a tax of a half- 
shekel, which every Jewish man above the age of twenty 
was required to pay for the upkeep of the Temple. The 
tax was authorized by the law of Ex. 30: 11-16 and was 
collected each year in March. In Capernaum the tax- 
gatherers met Peter and said to him: "Does your rabbi 
pay the half-shekel?" Peter replied that he did. Later, 
when Jesus and Peter were together Peter told Jesus 
about it. Jesus thereupon asked Peter some questions 
which indicated that, as God's Son, he should, on the 



298 Jesus of Nazareth 

principles of taxation which then prevailed in the world, 
be free from this charge for the support of God's house. 
Nevertheless, lest offense should be given, he directed 
Peter to go to the lake and catch a fish and obtain enough 
money to pay the tax for both of them. Some believe 
that the fish was sold for enough to pay the tax for both 
Jesus and Peter. By the time the Gospel of Matthew 
was written (the only Gospel which mentions the inci- 
dent) the story was told so as to seem that Peter found 
the money in the fish's mouth, but many reverent scholars 
suppose that in the earliest form of the tradition this was 
not so. 

While they were at Capernaum, some of the Pharisees 
tried to test the loyalty of Jesus to the Law of Moses. 
In Deut. 24: 1-4 there is a law which permits a Jew to 
divorce his wife, "because he hath found some unseemly 
thing in her." There was no question as to whether the 
"unseemly thing" might be unfaithfulness, for Deut. 22 : 
22 had provided that such a wife should be put to death. 
The rabbis had interpreted Deut. 24: 1-4 to mean that 
a man might divorce his wife, if she displeased him in 
any way. Some said that for a wife to spoil her hus- 
band's dinner was a sufficient ground for divorce. The 
question was keenly debated by the Jews at this time. 
In the generation before Jesus the two great founders 
of the Jewish Oral Law had taken opposite grounds with 
reference to it. Shammai, "to his eternal honor," had 
said that divorce was permitted only for unfaithfulness ; 
Hillel, "to his eternal dishonor," had said it meant "all 
kinds of other reasons as well." Jesus, with his unerr- 
ing vision for ethical reality, declared that Moses gave 
the Law because of the hardness of men's hearts, but 
that from the beginning it was not thus: that God had 
ordained one wife for one husband, and that what God 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 299 

had joined together, man should not put asunder. In 
saying this Jesus sided with Shammai, and strengthened 
the position by arguments peculiarly his own. He rees- 
tablished the ethical basis of the family on a foundation 
from which in modern times men and women depart at 
their peril. 

One day, while they were in Capernaum, as Jesus was 
on the street, parents tried to bring to him their little 
children that he might bless them. His disciples, think- 
ing that Jesus ought not to be bothered with mere chil- 
dren, rebuked the parents. Jesus heard it and it made 
him indignant. He told his disciples somewhat sternly 
to let the little children come to him and not forbid them, 
for to such belongs the kingdom of God. He said that 
no one shall enter the kingdom of God who does not 
receive it as a little child. Then he took the children in 
his arms, laid his hands affectionately upon them, and 
blessed them. 

We do not know how long they remained in Caper- 
naum at this time. Probably it was not many days. As 
Jesus and his disciples were leaving the city for their 
journey to Jerusalem, a young man who was rich ran 
after him and said "Good Teacher, what shall I do that 
I may inherit eternal life?" The question itself was very 
natural on the lips of a Jew, but his way of addressing 
Jesus was very unnatural ; it was fulsome praise. There 
is no instance in the whole Talmud of a rabbi being ad- 
dressed as "Good Teacher" or "Good Master." God 
and the Law are there alone declared to be good. In 
reply Jesus asked: "Why callest thou me good? None 
is good save one, even God." Commentators have seen 
in this question of Jesus many difficulties. He was 
neither denying, as some would have us suppose, that 
he was sinless ; nor was he, as others have supposed, say- 



300 Jesus of Nazareth 

ing that he could not accept such an epithet unless it were 
uttered by one who recognized him as God. Jesus was 
simply directing the man's thoughts to God as the perfect 
Good and the source of all goodness. The man was 
young, and, like many young people, he was too self- 
confident. Jesus would direct his thought away from 
himself to God. Having done this, Jesus said to him, 
"Thou knowest the commandments, 'Do not kill, Do not 
commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, 
Do not defraud, Honor thy father and thy mother.' " 
The young man replied, "Teacher, (he omitted the 
"good" now), all these things have I observed from my 
youth." Then Jesus, looking upon him, loved him. He 
was so eager, and possessed of such noble possibilities ! 
Perhaps he might be the material out of which saints are 
made. So Jesus decided to apply to him a supreme test. 
"One thing," said he, "thou lackest : go, sell whatsoever 
thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have 
treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." When 
he heard that, the young man's countenance fell. He 
was very rich. He could not make up his mind to part 
with his wealth. Sorrowfully turning, he went away. 
The supreme choice had come to him, and, though he 
longed for the life of the spirit, he could not bear to 
separate himself from the things which minister comfort 
to the flesh. 

As Jesus looked after him, he said to the disciples, 
"How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the 
kingdom of God!" Then, seeing that the disciples were 
amazed at his words, the Master added, "Children, how 
hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter the king- 
dom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through a 
needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
of God," In their astonishment the disciples said, 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 301 

"Who, then, can be saved?" Jesus answered, "With 
men it is impossible, but not with God : for with God 
all things are possible." 

Then Peter said, "Lo, we have left all and followed 
thee." He said no more, but Jesus understood the 
thought that was in his mind, which the Gospel of 
Matthew puts into words. Peter wanted to ask if he 
and the other disciples would gain eternal life. Jesus 
replied in substance : "Yes : you and all who leave home 
and kindred for me will not only gain eternal life, but 
you will have abundant rewards in this world, too. In 
the love and good will of men and women you will find 
friends — brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers. Their 
houses will become yours ; you will not want, though per- 
secution will be your lot." 

Jesus then proceeded to teach the Disciples that in 
God's kingdom rewards will not be bestowed in accord- 
ance with human expectations, but many who here seem 
to be first, will there appear last, and many who here 
seem to be last, will there stand first. In order to drive 
home this thought, he spoke the parable of the farmer 
who went out to hire laborers to work in his vineyard, 
and who hired men early in the morning at a denarius 
(about seventeen cents) a day. That was in the time 
of Jesus the common wage of a day laborer. Then at 
nine o'clock, twelve o'clock, and again at five in the 
afternoon, finding others idle in the market-place of 
his village, he sent them to work in his vineyard. 
Then at evening he paid them each a denarius. Naturally 
those who had worked all day complained that it was 
unfair for those who had worked but an hour to receive 
the same pay as those who had toiled through the hot 
sunshine for twelve hours, but the owner of the vineyard 
informed them that they had received the pay promised 



302 Jesus of Nazareth 

them, and that they had no cause of complaint; if he 
saw fit to treat with unexpected generosity those who 
had worked but an hour, he had the right to do so. 

In this reply Jesus makes the owner of the vineyard, 
who in the parable represents God, fall back upon his 
property rights. Every person situated like the owner 
of this vineyard would feel that, so long as he paid 
some men what he promised to, he was at liberty to 
treat others generously, if he chose to do so. God as 
owner and sovereign of the world has a right to do the 
same. To the ancient Oriental mind, that would be a 
sufficient answer, but to the modern mind it does not 
seem so satisfactory. We instinctively feel that in the 
mind of God there must be some good reason for the in- 
equalities of the rewards men get in this world. 

Jesus, in his remarks about the poor widow and her 
two mites, which will be treated in a later chapter, 1 seems 
to give the desired explanation. In his sight all service 
is not equally valuable. We can see that an hour's work 
by a skillful surgeon, who has spent years to perfect his 
skill, is worth more than the same amount of work per- 
formed by one who never learned to do anything at all. 
God's standards of value are measured, not only by the 
cost of the service in suffering, but by the depth of love 
and devotion from which the service springs. Then, 
too, it should be remembered that often the best reward 
for such love and devotion is the freedom from tempta- 
tion which a lack of great wealth brings. 

i See Chapter LIV, p. 336. 



CHAPTER L 

JESUS' LAST JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM 

(Mark 10:32-52; Matt. 20:17-34; 25:14-30; Luke 
18: 31-19:28.) 

A FTER a short stay in Capernaum, it became neces- 
A% sary, if Jesus and the Disciples would reach Jeru- 
"*" -^ salem in time for the Passover, for them to con- 
tinue their journey southward. This they accordingly did. 
Jesus fully realized that he was going to Jerusalem to 
die. No martyr ever approached the stake with greater 
certainty of death than that with which Jesus went up 
to Jerusalem at this time. If we admire the heroism 
of those who deliberately and unflinchingly face certain 
death for love or for truth, we must admire the heroism 
of Jesus. He went steadily to a fate which he foresaw, 
not cheered by martial music and the shouts of sympa- 
thetic companions, but practically alone. His Disciples 
were there to be sure, but, though well meaning, they 
did not understand. 

Absorbed in his thoughts, Jesus walked on before his 
companions. They noticed something unusual in his 
mien. He had a look or an air about him which amazed 
them. Just what it was we do not know. It may have 
been a new look on his face, a new light in his eye, or a 
new determination in his walk — it may have been all 
these and more, but as the Disciples followed, they were 
afraid. 

The route lay around the western shore of the Sea of 

303 



304 Jesus of Nazareth 

Galilee (though possibly friendly fishermen rowed them 
from Capernaum, on the northern shore, down to the 
south end of the Sea), then straight down the Jordan 
valley to Jericho. It was a journey of about three days. 
As the little party paused for rest, probably when they 
encamped on the first night, Jesus endeavored to make 
the Disciples understand that he was going to Jerusalem, 
not to a throne, but to death. "Behold," he said, "we 
go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered 
unto the chief priests and the scribes; and they shall 
condemn him to death, and shall deliver him unto the 
Gentiles : and they shall mock him, and shall spit upon 
him, and shall scourge him, and shall kill him ; and after 
three days he shall rise again." The Gospel of Luke 
tells us that his hearers understood none of these things, 
and, from what happened the next day, it is evident that 
their thoughts were too full of other visions of the Mes- 
siah for them to take these words of Jesus seriously. 

Scholars have sometimes found difficulties in the pre- 
diction of Jesus that he would rise again after three 
days. The words "after three days," as has previously 
been said, may be a Jewish idiom for "in the future." 
There is, however, no reason to doubt, whatever may be 
one's theology, that Jesus was certain that he would rise 
again. Every Pharisee believed in the resurrection. 
Jesus' Messiahship would naturally give him a more sure 
belief in his own resurrection. He had come into the 
world to fulfill God's great Messianic purpose — a purpose 
which Israel had, he was convinced, sorely misunderstood. 
He saw death staring him in the face, but God's purpose 
could not be thwarted. He would rise again in the 
future to carry on the work God had assigned him. He 
would survive the worst his enemies could do, and would 
fulfill the Father's will. This is what his words mean, 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 305 

and no one need doubt that, as he bravely faced death, 
he was sustained by this faith. The minds of the Disci- 
ples were, however, full of visions of an empire, a throne, 
of palaces and provinces, and so his words fell on deaf 
ears. Before this, at Csesarea Philippi, he had stated 
in general terms that he must die, but now as the event 
drew nearer, Jesus, endowed in unique degree with a 
sensitive spirit such as enabled prophets like Isaiah and 
Jeremiah to feel the approach of future events, sought 
to impress their minds with the fact by supplying more 
minute details as to the method and manner of his 
death. The Master's efforts made, however, surpris- 
ingly little impression on the minds of the Disciples. 
If they grasped at all the thought of death, the word 
"resurrection" carried their thoughts back again to 
supernatural Messianic expectations. 

The thoughts which filled the minds of the Disciples 
were revealed by the next event recorded in the Gospels. 
This apparently occurred on the next day, probably as 
they were encamped at evening for the night. Jesus 
and his Disciples were accompanied by relatives and 
friends from Capernaum, who were also journeying to 
Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Among them was 
the wife of Zebedee, the mother of James and John. 
Zebedee himself may also have been in the company, but 
he is not mentioned. Zebedee and his wife appear to 
have been rather more well-to-do than the other fisher- 
men who became the Disciples of Jesus, for Zebedee 
was able to employ "hired servants" in his fishing busi- 
ness (see Mark 1:20). The wife of such a man 
would naturally wish her sons not to be outstripped in 
dignity by common fisher-folk of a poorer family, like 
Peter and Andrew. If Jesus was to become the Mes- 
siah or heaven- favored king, this fond mother would 



306 Jesus of Nazareth 

naturally regard it as the right of her sons to occupy 
the highest places of honor at his court, inasmuch as 
they belonged to a slightly better class of society. These 
social distinctions are keenly appreciated by such people. 

The wife of Zebedee came, therefore, as they were 
resting from their journey, bringing her sons James and 
John. Prompted apparently by her, they began in true 
Oriental fashion by asking the Master to grant them 
whatever favor they might ask. When Jesus asked 
them what they desired, they said: "Grant that we may 
sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand in 
thy kingdom." The question showed clearly what a 
chasm yawned between their thoughts and those of Jesus ! 
They were thinking of glory and display; Jesus, of suf- 
fering, pain, and service. Jesus, therefore, in order to 
open their understandings by gentle questioning, asked: 
"Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink? or to be bap- 
tized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" It is 
obvious to us that the question was a figurative way of 
referring to the painful death which was now so near 
him. This, however, the two Disciples did not under- 
stand, so, with sublime ignorance of all that was in- 
volved, they said: "We are able." Jesus replied: "Ye 
shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with 
the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be bap- 
tized : but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand 
is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for 
whom it hath been prepared." By this he meant that 
to be near him depends on character and service. Such 
honors are determined by what one is and does; they 
are not granted as favors. 

In this little company, nothing happened in secret. All 
the Disciples had heard the ambitious request, and nat- 
urally were angry with James and John, Jesus* accord- 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 307 

ingly, called the Disciples about him and endeavored 
again to make clear to them how different were the prin- 
ciples on which his kingdom was based from those 
underlying ordinary political empires. He said in sub- 
stance : "In worldly empires great ones rule and exercise 
authority, but it is not so among you; but whosoever 
would become great, shall be your servant, and he who 
would be first among you shall be the slave of all. For 
the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, 
and to give his life a ransom for many." In these terse 
words did Jesus lay down the law of the kingdom of 
God. By them he also laid bare the secret of his life. 
and stated the principles on which alone an ideal social 
organization can be founded. 

In due time the little band of pilgrims reached the city 
of Jericho, and passed through it on their way to Jeru- 
salem. Jesus had been through Jericho or passed near 
to it a number of times during his ministry. Then, so 
far as we know, its people paid no particular attention 
to him. Xow. however, the Master and his Disciples 
were accompanied by many other pilgrims, some of 
whom had, perhaps, been healed by Jesus and many of 
whom, because of his words, regarded him as a wonder- 
ful teacher. As the travelers passed along, some one 
pointed out Jesus to some citizens of the place, and word 
passed from mouth to mouth that the great prophet, 
whose fame had filled the land, was in their streets. A 
crowd gathered quickly to see him. They filled the 
narrow streets, and followed him out of the city. Sit- 
ting outside the city gate there was a blind man. Blind- 
ness is very common in Palestine, where the bright sun- 
light, reflected from the limestone rocks, is verv trying 
to the eyes. As the blind were disqualified for any 
work the countrv afforded, the onlv resource of such 



308 Jesus of Nazareth 

unfortunates was to beg. This blind man, Bartimseus 
by name, therefore sat begging. Though his eyes were 
useless, his ears were keen. He quickly detected the 
sound of multitudinous feet, and asked what it meant 
that so many people were passing. When told that 
Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he cried out : "Jesus, 
thou son of David, have mercy on me ! Jesus, thou son 
of David, have mercy on me !" The people about him 
tried to hush him up. He was but an insignificant beg- 
gar. They would not have him trouble the great 
prophet. The sympathetic ear of Jesus was, however, 
quick to hear a cry for help. He stopped, requested that 
the man be brought to him, and asked him what he 
wanted. The man, who' had been so eager to come that 
he had cast away his outer garment or coat, perhaps to 
be stolen by the crowd, said, "O Master, that I may 
receive my sight!" Jesus said: "Go thy way; thy faith 
hath made thee whole." Thereupon the man's sight was 
restored and he joined the pilgrim band that was follow- 
ing Jesus to Jerusalem. 

Another man in Jericho was very anxious to see Jesus. 
He was a rich publican, named Zacchseus. Publicans, 
it will be remembered, were people who collected taxes 
for the hated Roman Government. They often exer- 
cised to the full the opportunities which tax-farming 
offered for oppressing the taxpayers. Naturally, the 
Jews regarded one of their own race who took up this 
business as a traitor to his people. He was despised 
and avoided. There was, however, a good side to Zac- 
chseus. How he came to go into the tax-collecting busi- 
ness we do not know. Zacchseus had heard of Jesus and 
felt a strong attraction toward him. Like the blind man, 
he heard from the crowd that Jesus was passing by, and 
thought his chance had come to see what Jesus looked 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 309 

like. So he joined the throng. Zaechgeus was, how- 
ever, a short man, and short people are always at a dis- 
advantage in a crowd. He could not see over the heads 
of taller people, and the throng prevented his getting 
near enough Jesus to see him, so he ran ahead and 
climbed a sycamore tree beside the road. Sitting on a 
limb of the tree, he could surely see the famous prophet 
as he went along. 

In due time Jesus came to the tree and, looking up, 
saw Zacchseus. Much to the astonishment of the pub- 
lican, Jesus addressed him, telling him to come down 
quickly, for it would suit Jesus to be a guest at his house 
that night. It touched Zacchseus deeply to be thus hon- 
ored. The prophet whom he had admired from afar 
did not despise him because of his calling, but trusted 
him. The social ostracism to which publicans were sub- 
jected did not prevent this wonderful teacher from hon- 
oring him by becoming a guest at his house. This 
confidence of Jesus called forth all that was good in 
Zacchaeus. He determined to be a better man, so, com- 
ing down and standing before Jesus, he said that he was 
going to give half of his goods to the poor, and, if he 
had taken anything from any man wrongfully, he was 
going to restore him four times as much. Thus Jesus, 
by trusting him, helped this man to a better life. 

That night at the house of Zacchaeus the talk of the 
Disciples turned to the great theme that was in their 
minds. Jesus had told them that he was the Messiah. 
They were near Jerusalem ; it must be that the kingdom 
of God would be established right away and the hated 
Roman driven from the sacred soil of Palestine. It is 
hard to keep a secret. The Disciples did not mean to dis- 
obey their Master, but they could not refrain from en- 
trusting the great secret of his Messiahship to many of 



310 Jesus of Nazareth 

their friends, under promise, doubtless, of secrecy. As the 
secret spread, whispered conversations concerning the 
great event were carried on. It was then that Jesus 
spoke the parable of the "Pounds" or "Talents," the pur- 
pose of which was to divert people's thoughts from spec- 
ulations as to external features of the kingdom and turn 
them to their own personal responsibility. 

At least one feature of this parable is taken from an 
incident in Jewish history that some of the older people, 
who heard it that night, would remember. Archelaus, 
the son of Herod the Great, had gone to Rome to receive 
a kingdom and to return. 1 Some of his fellow citizens, 
hating him, sent an embassage after him, saying they did 
not wish this man to rule over them. In his parable 
Jesus goes on to say that before a certain prince de- 
parted on such an errand, he called his servants and 
entrusted to them certain sums of money. To one he 
gave five talents (more than $11,500), to another, two 
(more than $4,600), and to another, one (more than 
$2,300). After receiving his kingdom, the prince re- 
turned, called the servants before him, and asked for 
an accounting of the money. The first came and said, 
"I received five talents; I have made by loaning and 
trading five talents more." The prince replied : "Well 
done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful 
in a small matter, I will make thee ruler over larger 
matters. Thou shalt become ruler over ten cities." The 
second came and said, "I received two pounds; I, too, 
have doubled my capital." The prince answered : "Well 
done! Thou shalt be ruler over five cities." Then the 
last man came and said : "I knew thee, that thou art a 

1 Two forms of the parable are given in the Gospels : one in Matt. 
25 : 14-29, the other in Luke 19: 11-28. In the text above an attempt 
is made, by blending the two to preserve the essential features of 
both. 



Jesus Avoiding His Enemies 311 

hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow and gather- 
ing where thou didst not scatter; and I was afraid. So 
I went and buried thy talent in the earth for safe-keep- 
ing. Here thou hast that which is thine." Afraid of 
running a risk, for fear of meeting displeasure, he had 
lost the opportunity to be of use to his master. With a 
stern rebuke the prince banished the suspicious, fearful, 
unfaithful servant from his presence. By this story 
Jesus tried to teach several things. Some of them were 
that, when one thinks of God's kingdom, he should think 
of his own work and how he is doing it. Another is 
that God expects his children to work for the spread of 
his kingdom, and daringly to take risks in doing so. 
Still another is that God enjoys creative work and ex- 
pects his children to enjoy it, too. He rewards the 
faithful doing of a job by giving a bigger job, and 
expects the worker, as he enjoys doing the larger work, 
to enter thereby more deeply into God's joy. If work 
is a gateway to eternal joy, lazy folk should beware! 



BOOK VI 
THE PASSION AND RESURRECTION 

Chapters LI-LXIII 



CHAPTER LI 

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY IXTO JERUSALEM 

(Mark n : i-ii ; Matt. 21 : 1-11 ; Luke 19: 29-44; John 
12 : 12-19.) 

IF we keep to the sound historical principle of follow- 
ing the earlier sources of information, we must sup- 
pose that Jesus and his Disciples arrived at Jericho 
on Friday, remained the guests of Zacchaeus over the Jew- 
ish Sabbath, which was Saturday, and started early on 
Sunday morning, the first day of the week, to walk the 
eighteen miles from Jericho to Jerusalem, for this is the 
order of events implied in Mark, Matthew, and Luke. 
As the Gospel of John was written so much later, we may, 
with all reverence, prefer the historical order of the 
others. 

In the East the country people are up with the sun and 
begin their journeys early. The pilgrims from Galilee 
(and there were, as we have seen, many besides Jesus 
and his disciples) could easily reach Jerusalem by noon, 
or, at the latest, early in the afternoon. On the eastern 
slope of the Mount of Olives, over which the pilgrims 
had to pass before reaching Jerusalem, lay two villages, 
Bethphage and Bethany. Bethany was the home of 
Simon, the leper, the father of Martha and Mary, and 
there is some reason to suppose that Lazarus, the brother 
of Martha and Mary, had married and was living at 
Bethphage. All of these were close friends of Jesus. 
Doubtless as they had walked that morning from Jericho 

315 



316 Jesus of Nazareth 

the conversation among the Galilean pilgrims had been 
much about the coming of the Messiah, and, when they 
arrived at the Mount of Olives, Jesus determined to give 
in symbolic form a more public sign of his Messianic 
claim than he had done before. It was not so many 
weeks since he had been with his friends of Bethany and 
he knew what animals they had. He therefore sent one 
of his Disciples to borrow an ass. The language in which 
the directions were given and the mission carried out 
show that the donkey belonged to a disciple and friend 
of Jesus. It may have been the property of Simon or 
Lazarus; it is, at any rate, pleasing to suppose that it 
belonged to one of them. When the animal had been 
found, according to the directions of Jesus, and brought, 
they put their garments on him in place of a saddle, and 
Jesus mounted him and rode on over the mountain into 
the city. 

The Galilean peasants, full of the idea that Jesus was 
the Messiah, remembered the words of the prophet 
Zechariah : 

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; 
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. 
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. 
He is just, and having salvation; 
Lowly, and riding upon an ass, 
Even upon a colt the foal of an ass." 

(Zech. 9:9.) 

Remembering this, they naturally supposed that Jesus 
was going to declare himself king, according to their Mes- 
sianic expectations. It was customary in the East, when 
a king was proclaimed, to spread rugs before him for 
him to walk over. In II Kings 9: 13 we are told that, 



The Passion and Resurrection 317 

when Jehu was proclaimed king, the people, in lieu of 
rugs, spread their garments on the stairs for him to walk 
on. Similarly, now, the Galilean peasants threw their 
garments before Jesus, and brought branches from the 
neighboring fields and strewed them on the road. To 
express their enthusiasm and joy they naturally adopted 
the words of Psalm 118: 25 f., quoting them freely from 
memory and adding a prayer of their own. They said, 
in substance : 

"Save us! Deliver us! 
Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord! 
Blessed is the kingdom that cometh, 
The kingdom of our father, David : 
Save us in the Highest !" x 

The Hebrew words blended into "Hosanna!" mean "Oh 
save!" The words are, accordingly, not words of praise 
to Jesus, but of prayer to God. True, they were spoken 
because it was believed that Jesus was to be the instru- 
ment by which the salvation was to come; in that sense 
they were words of praise. 

The kingdom founded by David had lasted but little 
more than seventy years when it split apart, but it had 
been a time so glorious that to it the thought of devout 
Hebrews always looked back as to an ideal. So, recog- 
nizing Jesus as the Messiah, these peasants naturally 
prayed that the kingdom of David might be restored, 
and that they might be saved, i.e., delivered from their 
Roman conquerors. 

Many students of the New Testament have asked : 
"Why did Jesus make this Messianic display, unless he 
thought that God would miraculously intervene, and help 

^■"In the Highest," means, "Thou who art in heaven," i.e., God. 



318 Jesus of Nazareth 

him to establish a political kingdom?" We may not pre- 
sume to think that we can fathom all his thought, but we 
can see enough to answer this question. His act reminded 
those about him of the words of Zechariah quoted above. 
Those words were prophetic, when really understood, of 
a humble, lowly, peaceful king; not of a warrior and con- 
queror. The ass was an animal of labor and peace. 
From the time of Solomon onward, the horse had been 
symbolic of war. In reality the ride over the Mount of 
Olives was Jesus' last attempt to convey to those about 
him by symbolic act that which his words had failed to 
convey, that he had not come to be a conquering warrior 
or political king, but a lowly Servant and Prince of 
Peace. 

According to Mark, Matthew, and Luke, those who 
took part in this Messianic demonstration were wholly 
confined to the band of pilgrims from Galilee, who had 
been traveling with Jesus and his Disciples, and who had 
at Jericho been thinking and talking about the coming 
Messiah during the leisure of the Sabbath. This is prob- 
ably the historic fact. Later, when the Gospel of John 
was written, it was naturally supposed that the people of 
Jerusalem must have shared in so important an event, but 
in all probability the procession consisted altogether of 
Galileans, and made no impression on the city. If the 
Jerusalemites heard the shouting at all, they seem to have 
looked upon the scene with cold curiosity. A helpless 
Galilean peasant, riding on a donkey, surrounded by 
peasants as unimportant as himself, all of whom seemed 
deluded, and who were pitiably few in the eyes of the city 
people, may have caused them to be mildly amused, but 
they did not, apparently, take the matter seriously. 

The effort of Jesus to say to his followers by act, what 
his words had failed to convey, had failed. Thus another 



The Passion and Resurrection 319 

grief was added to the heart of him whom the world has 
called "The Man of Sorrows." The Gospel of Luke tells 
us that, as Jesus rode down the western slope of the 
Mount of Olives, from which one looks upon a beautiful 
and impressive view of the city, his heart went out to it. 
It was the city of his forefathers ; the city of the Temple 
of God. There great prophets had spoken; there he, 
when a boy, had felt himself to be in his Father's house — 
God's presence. He loved it. He longed to help it; to 
put it on the pathway to peace and real happiness. He 
knew that he possessed the secret of a way of life that 
would accomplish this, but the folk of the city — priests, 
Pharisees, and people — would as a whole have nothing to 
do with his way of life. He had been unable to make 
even his Galilean peasants, who loved him and had lived 
with him, comprehend it enough to separate it from the 
national expectations. He had foreseen that Jerusalem 
would put him to death; he now had premonitions of the 
rebellion and destruction which the course she had chosen 
would bring upon the city. No wonder that his eyes filled 
with tears, and that he exclaimed : "If thou hadst known 
in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto 
peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes." 

After this stirring and affecting scene, Jesus went into 
the Temple and looked about. By this time evening was 
drawing on, so he went back to Bethany to lodge with 
his friends. Those who came from a distance to the 
Feasts were not permitted to sleep within the walls of 
Jerusalem. 



CHAPTER LII 

THE EVENTS OF THE FOLLOWING MONDAY 

(Mark n : 12-19; Matt. 21 : 12-22; Luke 19: 45-48; John 
2 : 13-22.) 

THE next morning, as Jesus passed over the Mount 
of Olives to return to Jerusalem, he saw a fig tree 
with abundant leaves and went nearer to look at 
it. The Gospel of Mark says he was hungry and thought 
that perhaps he might find on it some figs to eat, although 
it was not yet time for figs to be ripe. This is probably 
a misunderstanding of Jesus' purpose on the part of the 
writer of the Gospel, for one who understood nature as 
Jesus understood it must have known that figs do not 
begin to be ripe till about June and it was then not later 
than April. This misunderstanding of the Evangelist 
has led him to picture Jesus as praying, in a moment of 
disappointment, that the fig tree might never again bear 
fruit to feed a man — an act of petulance unjust even to a 
tree, if it was not yet time for figs to be ripe. 

The fact is that fig trees set their fruit before they put 
forth their leaves. Here was a tree with abundant 
foliage. From a distance it looked like a tree that would 
produce much food. It, however, could not fulfill its 
promise. Its profession was false. It was like many 
lives, the outward appearance of which gives fair prom- 
ise, but the fruits of which belie the expectations thus 

320 



The Passion and Rcs:'.y>'c:: : .:n 321 

raised. It was like the neighboring city of Jerusalem. 
with its fair professions and its cold, worldly heart. 

The next morning, as the Disciples went again with 
Jesus over the mountain toward Jerusalem, Peter noticed 
that the ri^ tree had be°am to wither, and called the fact 
he notice of the rest. It is possible that what follows 
in the Gospels did not originally belong here. If it does, 
s left the lesson of a false profession for them to 
draw for themselves at a later time. As the text stands 
he took occasion to emphasize a lesson which he had tried 
at various times before to teach them : namely, that faith 
and prayer arising out of faith produce results. As so 
often in his teaching. Jesus used for this purpose strong 
Oriental imagery. He said that, if one had faith, he could 
say to this mountain. "Be thou taken up and cast into 
the sea: and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe 
that what he saith shall come to pass; he shall have it." 
We literal-minded Westerners are tempted to take such 
sayings literally; we freeze this warm Oriental imagery 
into cold logical statement, and thus entangle ourselves in 
endless difficulty. Christ never intended it to be taken 
literally any more than he intended us to take literally 
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eve of a 
needle." Dr. Ribhany, who was born and reared in 
Syria, says "a Syrian never expects to be judged by 
what he says, but by what he means." In a country 
where such strong images are regularly used to give em- 
phasis, no one misunderstands them. They give striking 
form to thoughts that might, if expressed in milder lan- 
guage, fail to arrest the attention they deserve. Such 
language on the lips of an Oriental is quite different from 
the "idle words" against which Christ warned his dis- 
ciples. By "idle words" he meant malicious gossip, hurt- 
ful or impure talk. By this striking statement Jesus 



322 Jesus of Nazareth 

fixed in the minds of his Disciples the thought that faith 
and persistence can accomplish that which seems im- 
possible. 

Jesus and those with him passed from the mountain 
and the fig tree across the brook, Kedron, into the city 
and into the precincts of the Temple. In order to under- 
stand what happened next, we should recall what was 
said in Chapter VI of the form of the Temple and its 
courts. The outermost court of the Temple and that 
into which one, on entering, came first was the "Court 
of the Gentiles." Into this court anybody could come, 
but Gentiles could go no farther than this. As one of the 
great Feasts approached, this court presented a busy 
scene. Here were for sale oxen, sheep, and doves; here 
were money-changers. Pilgrims were coming in and 
bargaining; sellers of sacrifices and money-changers were 
intent on gain. People were hurrying to and fro; all 
was bustle. The scene suited a market-place rather than 
a house of worship. Why was this? 

No real Passover could be celebrated without a sheep 
as a victim. Then there were other sacrifices, some of 
which were offered daily, and others were for special and 
personal occasions. These sacrifices ranged from bul- 
locks and rams to turtle doves and pigeons. In the early 
days of Israel's life in Palestine no one had lived very 
far from a sanctuary, all the people were farmers or 
shepherds, and each could furnish these sacrifices from 
his own possessions. Conditions had, however, long ago 
changed. When all sanctuaries were abolished except 
that in Jerusalem, many people lived too far away to 
bring animals with them. By this time, too, Israelites 
were scattered in many countries and many had aban- 
doned farming for other kinds of business. It was neces- 
sary, therefore, for pilgrims from a distance to buy their 



The Passion and Resurrection 323 

sacrificial animals after they reached Jerusalem. There 
were places on the Mount of Olives where these were 
sold, but, if one bought there, he must bring the animal 
to the priest at the Temple, have it examined to see 
whether it had any blemish, and not only pay the priest 
for examining it, but perhaps have him pronounce it un- 
fit. It was accordingly much more convenient to make 
the purchase in the Temple court, where the sales were 
carried on under the supervision of the priests and one 
could be sure that the animal bought would be accepted 
at the sanctuary. Pilgrims who came from distant lands, 
perhaps visiting the Temple for the only time in their 
lives, would not only celebrate the Passover, but present 
sacrifices for completed vows, and perhaps offer various 
other sacrifices as well. They would therefore buy a 
number of animals. 

Another thing afforded an opportunity for great profit. 
While independent under the Asmonean dynasty from 
143 to 63 B.C., the Jews had issued a silver coinage. 
These coins were called "shekels." A silver shekel was 
about the size of a quarter of a dollar, only about twice 
as thick; a half-shekel was about the size of a ten cent 
piece, only a good deal thicker. After the Roman con- 
quest of Palestine the Jews were not permitted to issue 
anything but copper coins. All larger denominations of 
money, except such old coins as were still in circulation, 
were Roman or Parthian in origin. Then as now old 
coins continued to circulate. Although the kingdoms of 
Egypt and Syria had been subject to Rome for years, 
silver coins issued by their kings still passed from hand 
to hand. At various times different Greek and Phoeni- 
cian cities had issued silver coins, many of which were 
still in circulation. Pilgrims who came up to Jerusalem 
to the Feasts from Parthia, Media, Babylonia, Cappa- 



324 Jesus of Nazareth 

docia, Pontus, the Province of Asia (where the kingdom 
of Pergamon had flourished and issued its coins), Phry- 
gia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Cyrene, Rome, Crete, and Arabia, 1 
not to mention other countries, would bring with them 
quite a museum of different kinds of money. 

This gave the priests another opportunity for gain. 
They insisted that the sacrifices should be paid for in 
Jewish money, which by this time had assumed in their 
eyes a semi-sacred character. Money-changers became, 
therefore, as necessary as an animal-market. These men 
did not change money for nothing. Some Jews had al- 
ready developed that financial instinct which has made 
members of that race such successful bankers in the mod- 
ern world, and large profits were made by money- 
changers as well as by the market men. All this business 
was in the hands of the priesthood, and, while certain 
profits were supposed to go to the Temple-treasury, there 
is reason to believe that that on animals and on money- 
changing went to the priests themselves, especially to the 
high-priestly family. When men get a monopoly of any- 
thing, they are always exposed to the temptation to 
profiteer, and most men yield to the temptation. These 
Jewish priests were no exception. They charged exorbi- 
tant prices and made enormous profits. It is on record 
that they once demanded about $3.90 for a couple of 
pigeons, which, through the influence of Simon, grand- 
son of Hillel, they afterward sold for four cents ! Four 
cents was about the usual market price of pigeons at that 
time. 

It was into this market, run on these conditions, that 

Jesus and his Disciples came that day. Here were pious 

pilgrims who had come at great sacrifice from the ends 

of the earth with hearts deeply stirred by the thought 

!See Acts 2:9-11. 



The Passion and Resurrection 325 

that new at last they were in God's very house, and these 
cold-blooded priests and their servants were greedily pro- 
fiteering upon their piety! Here were devout Galilean 
peasants whose hard-earned savings were not only being 
wrongfully pocketed by the traders, but who were being 
subjected to ridicule because of their rude clothing and 
unpolished manners. When Christ saw it all, he was filled 
with indignation, and determined to drive the traders 
from the Temple. The earliest Gospels do not tell us what 
means he employed. The Gospel of John says that he 
made a scourge of small cords. It is improbable that the 
priests and their servants, unless overwhelmingly out- 
numbered, would give way without a struggle. Not only 
the Disciples, but the Galilean peasantry who believed him 
to be the Messiah, would, if any of them were there, aid 
him. More than this, probably most of the people about 
would side with him. The profiteers were most unpopu- 
lar with the worshipers, Y\ nerever one came from, he 
was sure to hear before he went to the Temple what high 
prices were charged in the trading booths. Perhaps we 
are not wrong in supposing that the whole crowd present 
sided with Jesus and his Disciples so that the booth- 
keepers, seeing that the situation was hopeless, withdrew 
without a struggle. There cannot have been anything ap- 
proaching a fight or disorderly disturbance, for at the 
northwest corner of the Temple area a garrison of Roman 
soldiers was stationed to be in readiness to quell just such 
turmoil, and they did not interfere, but the act of Jesus, 
had the traders and money-changers offered resistance, 
would certainly have led to a physical struggle. 

Jesus, we are told, then took possession of the Temple 
court and did not for the rest of that day permit people to 
carry things across it. i.e. to use the Temple area as a 
short cut from one part of the town to another. Until 



326 Jesus of Nazareth 

evening he himself remained there and taught the people. 
He recalled to them the words of the book of Isaiah: "My 
house shall be called a house of prayer for all the na- 
tions" — that was God's purpose and ideal — "but," added 
Jesus, "ye have made it a den of robbers." x 

These words show us Christ's estimate of profiteering. 
A profiteer is a thief, whether he asks an unfair price for 
goods, for the use of capital, or for the labor of his 
hands. In the eyes of Jesus the great profanation of the 
Temple by the market was that men, placed there to in- 
terpret God to the people and to help them to worship 
him, deliberately turned the place and their office into 
instruments of unjust gain for themselves. Against the 
presence of the market there to serve the people, he ut- 
tered no word. We can easily see from this what Christ 
would think of many of the methods of modern busi- 
ness. This incident in the life of our Lord also shows 
that he was not opposed, as many have thought, to the 
use of force to put down wrongdoers. He was capable, 
not only of mighty and burning indignation, but of vigor- 
ous physical resistance. That there was no blood shed on 
this occasion was because the traders and money-changers 
made no resistance. Had they done so, it would have 
occurred. That it did not, was, perhaps, due to the 
influence of his personality. 

Naturally, on account of this day's doings, the priests 
were most anxious to arrest Christ. The multitude was, 
however, on his side, and the priests did not dare to do it. 
The people from near and far were astonished at his 
teaching and more began to wonder whether he were not 
the Messiah. When night came, he went back to Beth- 
any, 
ilsa. 56:7. 



CHAPTER LIII 

THE EVENTS OF TUESDAY 

(Mark 11:27-12:17; Matt. 21:23-22:22; Luke 
20: 1-26; John 7: 53.) 

THE next two days were filled with discussions 
with many kinds of people — all opponents of 
Jesus or disbelievers in him. As soon as he ap- 
peared in the Temple courts on the morning after he had 
driven the traders from the Temple, a group of the chief 
priests, scribes, and elders gathered about him and asked 
him by what authority he had done what he did the day 
before. If Jesus told them that he did it simply by virtue 
of his authority as Messiah, they would surely misunder- 
stand him, for even his Disciples had not understood his 
view of his Messiahship. He accordingly said to the 
group about him: "I will ask of you one question, and 
answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these 
things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or 
from men ? Answer me." Then they conferred together 
and said, "If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, 
Why then did ye not believe him? But should we say, 
From men — they feared the people : for all verily counted 
John as a prophet." So they turned to Jesus and said, 
"We know not." Then said Jesus, "Neither tell I you by 
what authority I do these things." 

As this conversation took place in a court of the Tem- 
ple, it was, no doubt, overheard by others, who, seeing a 
group of prominent Jews talking, came up to find out 
what the discussion was about. Having put the priests 
and their companions to silence, Jesus then uttered some 

327 



328 Jesus of Nazareth 

forceful parables. The first was that of the man who 
said to his two sons, "Go work to-day in the vineyard." x 
One son said, "I will not," but afterward repented and 
went. The other said, "I will go," but did not do it. 
"Which of the two," asked Jesus, "did the will of his 
father?" They answered, "The first." In reply Jesus 
told them that common sinners would go into the kingdom 
of God before them. 

He then went on to say that there was a land-owner 
who planted and fully equipped a vineyard and let it out 
to farmers, 2 and who sent various servants at different 
times to collect the rent, which was to be paid in grapes 
or wine; but one servant the farmers beat, another they 
maltreated, and a third they wounded and threw out help- 
less. At last he sent his son, saying, "They will reverence 
my son." When, however, the farmers saw the son, they 
said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his 
inheritance." "What," asked Jesus, in substance, "will 
the land-owner do? He will surely come and destroy 
those wicked farmers and give the vineyard to others." 
The priestly group who had begun the conversation prob- 
ably did not understand his full meaning, but they under- 
stood enough to know that somehow the parable was 
directed against them, and they would have had him ar- 
rested, but they remembered how the crowd had sided 
with him the day before and sustained his interference 
with their market, so, fearing the multitude, they did 
nothing. 

As they were all still standing about, Jesus told them 3 
that the kingdom of heaven was like a king who made a 
marriage feast for his son, and, when all was prepared, 

iMatt. 21:28-32. 

2 Mark 12:1-12; Matt. 21:33-46; Luke 20:9-19. 

3 Matt. 22 : 1-4. 



The Passion and Resurrection 329 

sent his servants out to say to those who were invited, 
''Dinner is ready; my oxen and fatted animals are killed, 
and everything is ready : come to the marriage feast." 
But they made light of it and went their ways, one to 
his farm, and another to his store, while some actually 
abused his servants. That made the king angry, and he 
sent his servants out into the highways and hedges and 
invited all whom they found, rich and poor, bad and good, 
to come to the feast. He also sent his army to destroy 
those who had scorned his invitation and abused his ser- 
vants. Again, the point of the parable was too clear for 
the Pharisees not to understand that it was, somehow, 
directed against them. 

There happened to be in the Temple court that day 
some Herodians, or partisans of Herod, from Galilee. 
They were Jews who looked for the revival of Israel's 
fortunes through the house of Herod. They were a 
political rather than a religious party. Probably their 
sympathies were, in a mild way, with the Pharisees. 
They now conferred with a group of Pharisees and 
formed a plan by which they hoped to tempt Jesus into 
saying something that could be regarded as a seditious 
utterance against the Roman Government. Having 
formed their plans, they came up to him with a very flat- 
tering speech. They said, 1 "Teacher, we know that thou 
art true, and carest not for any one; for thou regardest 
not the person of men, but of a truth teachest the way of 
God: Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? 
Shall we give, or shall we not give ?" Jesus said to them, 
"Show me a denarius." (The denarius, worth about 
seventeen cents, was, it will be remembered, the most 
common Roman silver coin. As has been said, it repre- 
sented the value, at that time, of a day's wages for an un- 

iMark 12:13-17; Matt. 22:15-22; Luke 20:20-26. 



2,3° Jesus of Nazareth 

skilled workman.) The denarius bore, stamped upon it, 
a picture of Caesar. The one they brought to Jesus prob- 
ably, like coins of Tiberius which have been found, showed 
the features of the emperor Tiberius, and around the pic- 
ture of the head of the emperor ran an inscription as fol- 
lows : "Tiberius Caesar, exalted of the gods, son of 
Augustus" (Tiberius was the adopted son of Augustus). 

When one of them took a denarius from his girdle 
and showed it to Jesus, our Lord said, " Whose is this 
image and inscription?" They replied "Caesar's." Then 
said Jesus : "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's ; 
and unto God the things that are God's," Some have 
professed to see in this reply a statement that religion 
and politics have nothing to do with each other, but that 
is not Christ's meaning. His meaning has been well 
stated as follows : "Civil obedience, attested by the pay- 
ment of tribute, no more contradicts than it abolishes the 
obedience which is due to God. The first of these duties 
does not interfere with the second. It is trivial in com- 
parison with the second. . . . The kingdom of heaven is 
not to be established by violence, by rebellion against the 
established order. . . . One should pay to Caesar the tax 
which attests his sovereignty, and it would be foolish to 
believe that God and his reign would gain anything by the 
rejection of an obligation of this kind." The debt to 
Caesar was on a very different plane from their obliga- 
tion to God. Jesus' questioners were astonished at his 
answer. They could only hold their peace. He had ut- 
tered no word on which a charge of disloyalty to Rome 
could be founded. 

In such questionings as these, Tuesday passed, and, 
when night came, Jesus accompanied by his Disciples went 
out again to the Mount of Olives to sleep. 1 

i John 7: 53. 



CHAPTER LIV 

IN THE TEMPLE ON WEDNESDAY 

(Mark 12 : 18-44; Matt. 22 : 23-23 : 39 ; Luke 20 : 27-47 ; 
John 8: 1-11.) 

EARLY Wednesday morning he returned to the 
Temple. As soon as he appeared a number of 
people gathered about him and he sat down and 
taught them. While he was thus engaged a group of 
scribes and Pharisees interrupted him. They came x 
bringing a young woman who< had committed a sin for 
which the Law ordered death by stoning (see Deut. 22: 
23, 24). She had been caught and had been brought for 
trial. As hers was a capital offense, she would be tried 
by twenty-three judges. The men who brought her were 
probably assembling in the Temple court to try her, when, 
seeing Jesus, and remembering the indignity he had 
placed on their priests two days before, they thought it a 
good opportunity to put him to the test. He was re- 
ported to be merciful to all sinners; perhaps they could 
get him to commit himself to some principle that was in 
conflict with the sacred Law. So, bringing the woman 
up, they said : "Rabbi, this woman was caught sinning. 
Now Moses in the Law commanded that such should be 
stoned; but what dost thou say?" Jesus bent over and 
began to write on the dust of the court as though he did 
not hear them. This is the only time that Jesus is said 

1 John 8: 2-11, — a passage which clearly is not a part of the Gospel 
of John. Some manuscripts make it a part of Luke. It probably 
belongs at this point in Christ's life. 

331 



332 Jesus of Nazareth 

ever to have written anything. What would we not give 
to know what he wrote! As they continued to repeat 
their question, Jesus straightened himself up and said: 
"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a 
stone at her." Again, stooping down, he continued his 
writing. Some have supposed that he wrote in the dust 
the names of sins of which the woman's judges were 
guilty, but of that we cannot be sure. These scribes and 
Pharisees were good men, only, like many of us, they were 
somewhat misguided and had not the clearest of moral 
ideals. They did not mean to be bad or cruel. They 
thought they were obliged to obey God's Law in cases like 
this woman's. The words of Jesus, however, set them 
thinking. Their own sins passed before their minds. 
Their consciences awoke. They were ashamed of them- 
selves, and one by one they slunk away. After a little 
Jesus raised his head again, and saw only the woman 
standing there in her shame. "Woman," said Jesus, 
"where are those thy accusers? hath no man condemned 
thee?" She said, "No one, sir." Jesus said, "Neither 
do I condemn thee : go and sin no more." 

There the story ends. We do not know its sequel. 
Jesus trusted the woman as he had trusted Zacchseus. 
She had grievously sinned, but he gave her another 
chance. Doubtless, if we could know the story of her 
after-life, we should find that she proved herself worthy 
of the trust Jesus reposed in her. 

After the scribes and Pharisees had slunk away, some 
Sadducees came up to question Jesus. The Sadducees 
accepted nothing which could not be justified from the 
text of the Old Testament, especially the Law; they ac- 
cordingly denied the resurrection of the dead and the fu- 
ture life. They came to Jesus and tried to see what he 
would say to one of the puzzles by which they proved, 



The Passion and Resurrection 333 

with much satisfaction to themselves, the absurdity of a 
future life. The Law (Deut. 25 : 5 ff) ordained that, if 
a married man died childless, his brother should marry 
his widow. "Now," said the Sadducees in substance, 
"there was a woman here, who, in obedience to this law, 
was married by seven brothers one after another. In the 
resurrection whose wife shall she be?" In reply Jesus 
said : "You do not, apparently, know either the Scriptures 
or God's power. When they rise from the dead, they 
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels 
in heaven. Concerning the resurrection of the dead, did 
you never read in the books of Moses, in the story of 
the Burning Bush, how God spake to Moses, saying, 'I 
am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the 
God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of 
the living. You are altogether wrong." The point of 
Jesus' argument was that, long after Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob were dead, God, in speaking to Moses, called him- 
self their God. As the Jews believed God was the God 
of the living only, it followed that Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob must be living somewhere. Thus from Scripture, 
according to reasoning which the Sadducees regarded as 
convincing, did Jesus put them to confusion. Perhaps, as 
some one has said, he answered them according to their 
folly, but the argument was acute by the standards of that 
time. 

While Jesus had been talking to the Sadducees one of 
the scribes was standing near and heard the conversation. 
He was pleased with the way Christ had silenced them, 
for in so doing he had justified a Pharisaic doctrine — 
the doctrine of the resurrection. Perhaps this particular 
scribe was not one of those who had joined in the ques- 
tionings which had preceded. At all events he seems to 
have been a man of good spirit and real religious insight. 



334 Jesus of Nazareth 

He now asked Jesus x which commandment was the 
greatest or most important of all. Jesus gave him the 
same reply that he himself had received on a previous oc- 
casion from a certain lawyer. 2 He pointed to the great 
commandment of Deut. 6:4 ff., which the Jews called 
the Shema : 3 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 
and with all thy strength." "This," said Jesus, "is the 
first." "The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself. There is none other commandment greater 
than these." With his wonderful power of separating 
real things from make-believes, Jesus selected these com- 
mandments out of the whole Pentateuch as the most im- 
portant. The first states man's duty to God; it is the 
basis of religion. The second, which is taken from Levi- 
ticus 19, states his duty to his fellow man; it gives the 
basis of ethical conduct and its essence. As defined in 
Leviticus it applies, not simply to one's own people, but 
to resident foreigners. It would, if obeyed, abolish race 
hatreds and race feuds. 

The scribe, too, appreciated genuine goodness, for he 
told Jesus that he had answered well, for to keep these 
commands is "better than all whole burnt offerings and 
sacrifices." Jesus, looking earnestly at him, replied, 
"Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." 

All Jesus' questioners had now been put to silence, 
driven from the field, or won over to his side. Jesus 
himself now began to speak — carrying the war, so to 
speak, into the country of the enemy. First he asked 
them a puzzling question about the Messiah as the son 

iMark 12:28-34; Matt. 22:34-40; Luke 20:39, 40. 

2 See above, Chapter XXXVII. 

3 See Chapter XII. 



The Passion and Resurrection 335 

of David, which they could not answer. 1 Then, as the 
crowd, composed partly of his disciples and followers, 
and partly of scribes and Pharisees, sat or stood about, 
he uttered a scathing denunciation of the scribes and 
Pharisees as a class, because of the outward formality 
and ethical hollowness of their religion. 2 They kept 
the letter of the Law, they bound little boxes, 3 con- 
taining parts of the Law, on their foreheads and arms, 
as commanded in Deut. 6 : 8, but they were ambitious 
and conceited, and missed its spirit. He denounced them 
for shutting men out of the real kingdom of God, for 
being very careful about the details of tithes and sacri- 
fices, but neglecting justice and mercy. He likened them 
to dishes washed on the outside, but unclean within; to 
tombs, whitewashed without, but inwardly full of cor- 
ruption. He declared that they were genuine children of 
those who killed the prophets, and that the blood of all 
the prophets would be avenged on that generation. It 
was a powerful invective. The whole of it should be 
read to be appreciated. These words of Jesus followed 
naturally upon his act of driving the traders and money 
changers out of the Temple two days before. He knew 
that these people would accomplish his death. He knew 
it when he came to Jerusalem, but nevertheless he would 
expose them and with dauntless courage lay bare their 
real nature to their faces in the citadel of their power. 
At the time he said these things, although he was in- 
dignant, his heart was tender. He could not think of 
the awful suffering that was sure to come upon Jerusa- 
lem without emotion. His address to the multitude, 

1 Mark 12 : 35-37 ; Matt. 22 : 41-46 ; Luke 20 : 41-44. 

2 Matt. 23 : 1-36. 

3 These \tfere called "phylacteries," as previously explained. 



336 Jesus of Nazareth 

therefore, concluded with a loving address to Jerusalem. 1 
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets and 
stoneth them that are sent unto thee ! How often would 
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not ! Behold your house is left unto you desolate." Thus 
once more did his baffled love find expression. 

Before he left the Temple Jesus went into the court of 
the women, which was on the east of the court of the 
men, and sat down there. In this court was the treasury, 
or, as we should say, the boxes for offerings. As Jesus 
was sitting there looking toward the treasury, a poor 
widow came up and threw into the box two small coins 
called lepta, or "bits." 2 Our English Bibles translate it 
"mites." It was the smallest coin in circulation, and was 
worth about one eighth of a cent. Jesus noted the deep 
feeling of the woman; possibly he had known her before. 
Then he called his Disciples to him and pointed the woman 
out to them. Many other people were there and had been 
putting their offerings into the box. "All these," said 
Jesus in substance, "have cast into the treasury from 
an abundance which they did not need, but this poor 
widow has cast in more than they all, for she has given 
all her living." This was the last recorded incident of 
Jesus' stay in the Temple. He taught by it that God 
values love more than material things. 

1 Matt. 23 : 37-39. 

2 Mark 12 : 41-44 ; Luke 21 : 1-4. 



CHAPTER LV 

AN INSTRUCTIVE WALK AXD A SUPPER 

(Mark 13:1-37:14:3-9; Matt. 24:1-25:13; 26:6-13 
and 31-46; Luke 21 : 3-3S ; John 12 : 1-8.) 

SO OX after Jesus had called the attention of his Dis- 
ciples to the widow who was casting her "mites" 
into the treasury, he and his Disciples went out of 
the Temple and started back to Bethany. As they passed 
through the great gate which led from the court of the 
Gentiles on the east into the Kidron valley., one of his 
Disciples called his attention to the great stones of which 
the wall was built and to the massive character of the 
structure. It was work of which every Jew was proud. 
Xot many walls in Palestine were so well built, and any 
that might be compared with it were in the half-heathen 
structures of the Herods which a good Jew seldom went 
near. To the Galilean fishermen, therefore, the Temple 
walls seemed the most wonderful in the world. Jesus. 
as we have already noted, saw clearly the fate before 
Jerusalem. The political aspirations of her people must. 
if persisted in. bring upon her the devastating wrath of 
Rome. So he replied : "Seest thou these great buildings? 
there shall not be left here one stone upon another, which 
shall not be thrown down." At this reply, the Disciples 
were greatly astonished. 

The little company crossed the Kidrcn valley and sat 
down on the western slope of the Mount of Olives look- 
ing toward the city. A beautiful view of the Temple 

337 



338 Jesus of Nazareth 

and the city, with towers and domes gilded in the light 
of the setting sun, lay before them. As they sat there 
Peter and Andrew, James and John gathered about Jesus, 
while the others were somewhat apart, and said : "Tell us 
when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign 
when these things are all about to be accomplished?" 
Jesus' reply may be translated as follows :' "Be careful 
that no one leads you astray, for many shall come pre- 
tending to be Messiahs and shall lead many astray. Take 
heed to yourselves, for they shall deliver you up to coun- 
cils; and in synagogues shall ye be beaten; and before 
governors and kings shall ye stand for my sake, for a tes- 
timony unto them. Your first duty is to preach the gos- 
pel to all nations. When they lead you to judgment and 
deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand what you 
shall speak. Say what comes to you to say at such times, 
for the Holy Spirit shall help you. There shall be great 
persecution. Brother shall deliver up brother to death, 
and the father his child ; and children shall rise up against 
parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall 
be hated of all men for my name's sake : but he that en- 
dureth to the end, the same shall be saved. 

"If, then, any man says, 'Lo, here is the Messiah; or 
Lo, he is there' ; do not believe it : for there shall arise 
false Messiahs and false prophets, and shall exhibit such 
signs and wonders as to deceive, if possible, the very elect. 
Be careful; behold I have told you these things before- 
hand. Learn a parable from the fig tree: when her 
branches bud and leave out, you know that summer is 
near ; so when you see these things happening, know that 
it (the destruction of Jerusalem) is near, even at the 
doors. No one knows just the time when it will be, not 
even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father 
only. Be careful, therefore, watch and pray; for you 



The Passion and Resurrection 339 

do not know when the time is. It is as when a man 
journeys to a distant land and bids his servants watch; 
they do not know when he will come back. He may come 
at evening, or midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the 
morning. Watch, therefore, lest coming suddenly it find 
you sleeping." x 

Jesus then, in order to make them see the importance 
of watching, told them the story of the ten girls who 
went out to meet a bridegroom. 2 Weddings took place 
at the home of the bride; the festivities lasted into the 
night. These girls belonged to the household of the 
groom, or were friends of his family. They went out 
to escort him and his bride home. They did not know 
what time of night the wedding party would come along, 
so, taking each a little clay lamp, such as was used in 
Palestine, that they might make something like a torch- 
light procession to express their joy, they camped at a 
convenient point by the roadside and, after setting a 
watch, all went to sleep. The clay lamps were small. 
They held but little oil, and that was soon burned up. 
Five of the girls were thoughtful enough to take along 
some little jugs of oil, but the other five never thought 
of it. About midnight the sentinel awakened them all, 
with the cry: "The bridegroom is coming! Go to meet 
him." Then all the girls got up, lighted their lamps, and 
started to join in a glad procession that was to escort 
the wedding party home. Before they reached the wed- 
ding party, however, five of the lamps began to go out. 
Then the five thoughtless girls said to the others : "Give 
us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out." The 
others said: "We have not enough for us all. Go and 

1 This reply is embodied in Mark 13 : 5, 6, 9-13, 21-23, 28, 29 and 
32-37. As the chapter stands other words have been mingled with 
those of Christ. See p. 341. 

2 Matt. 25 : 1-8. 



340 Jesus of Nazareth 

buy some." While they went to buy, the bridegroom 
came, the procession was formed, and escorted him home, 
and the unprepared girls had no part in it. "Watch," 
said Jesus, "do not be like those foolish girls." 

While they sat there he spoke to them the parable of 
the shepherd who separates his sheep from the goats. 1 
He said in substance : "When the Son of man judges the 
nations, the good and bad will be separated as when a 
shepherd separates his sheep and goats, putting the sheep 
on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then he 
shall say to those on his right hand, 'Come ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world ; for I was hungry and you 
gave me something to eat ; I was thirsty and you gave me 
something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me 
into your homes; naked and you clothed me; I was sick 
and you visited me ; I was in prison, and you came unto 
me.' The astonished people will say, 'Why, Lord, there 
must be some mistake. When did we ever see thee be- 
fore ?' The reply shall be, 'Surely, inasmuch as you did 
it to one of my brethren, even the least important of 
them, you did it to me.' Then shall he say to those on 
his left hand, 'Depart from me into the abode prepared 
for such as you: for I was hungry and you gave me 
nothing to eat ; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink ; 
I was a stranger and you turned me from your doors ; I 
was naked and you gave me no clothing; sick, and in 
prison and you did not visit me.' Then the self-righteous 
ones on the left shall say, 'When did we see thee in any 
of these situations and did not minister unto thee?' The 
answer shall be, 'Surely, inasmuch as you did not do it 
unto one of the least important people, you did not do it 
unto me.' " 
i Matt. 25 : 31-46. 



The Passion and Resurrection 341 

With this powerful parable Jesus, as the hour of his 
Passion drew nearer, sought to make his Disciples under- 
stand that he identified himself with humanity — with the 
world's poor, that service to them is service to him, and 
that, upon such service to God's helpless children one's 
eternal destiny depends. 1 

After talking thus with his Disciples, Jesus arose and 
they all walked on eastward over the mountain to Beth- 
any, where, in the house of Simon called the leper, the 
father of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, they were all in- 

1 This discourse of Jesus upon the destruction of Jerusalem is in 
harmony with his teaching as to the nature of the kingdom of God 
and the nature of his Messiahship, which we have found in earlier 
pages of the Gospels. The early disciples were, however, so pos- 
sessed of the idea that Jesus, if the Messiah, must come back on 
the clouds of heaven to establish an earthly kingdom, that in the 
Gospel of Mark, our earliest account of this talk with the Disciples, 
a little Jewish apocalypse, written in the time of the emperor Cali- 
gula, seems, so many scholars believe, to have been incorporated 
with the words of Jesus. Fortunately, it can still be easily separated. 
Its teachings are in some respects opposed to those of Christ in 
other verses of the chapter. This apocalypse consisted of Mark 13 : 
7, 8, 14-20, 24-27, 30, 31. It read as follows: "And when ye hear 
of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled : these things must 
needs come to pass ; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise 
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom : there shall be earth- 
quakes in different places ; there shall be famines : these things are 
the beginning of agony. But when you see the abomination of 
desolation standing where it ought not (let him that readeth under- 
stand) then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains : and 
let him that is on the housetop not go down, nor enter in, to take 
anything out of his house : and let him that is in the field not re- 
turn back to take his cloak. But woe unto them that are with child 
and who have nursing babies in those days ! And pray you that it 
be not in winter. For those days shall be tribulation, such as there 
has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God 
created until now, and never shall be. And except the Lord had 
shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved : but for the 
elect's sake, whom he chose, he shortened the days. But in those 
days, after the tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon 
shall not give her light, and the stars shall be falling from heaven, 
and the powers that are in the heavens shall be shaken. And then 
shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great 
power and glory. And then shall he send forth his angels and 



34 2 Jesus of Nazareth 

vited to a supper. 1 Simon, who, six months before, at 
the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, 2 had been banished 
as a leper, apparently had now recovered and had re- 
turned home. Probably he had not really had leprosy at 
all, but some kind of eczema which the law in Leviticus 
did not distinguish from it. The family owed much to 
Jesus and it was quite natural for them to ask Jesus and 
all his Disciples to supper. Martha, the devoted house- 
keeper and hostess, took pleasure in serving. Lazarus 
and, doubtless, his family were there. 

While the supper was in progress Mary came in with 
a little alabaster jar of nard, a very costly kind of oint- 
ment, and, breaking open the jar, poured the nard over 
the head of Jesus. Some of those present (the Gospel of 
John says that Judas Iscariot was among them) criticized 
the act. What they said might be translated, "To what 
purpose is this waste? This ointment might have been 
sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money 
given to the poor." 

Jesus, touched by her love and devotion, said in sub- 
stance: "Let her alone; why do you criticize her? She 
has done a good deed to me. You have the poor with 



gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost 
part of earth unto the uttermost part of heaven. Verily I say unto 
you, This generation shall not pass away, until all these things be 
accomplished. Heaven and earth shall pass away : but my words 
shall not pass away." 

The editorial freedom used by the author of Mark in expanding 
the words of Jesus was followed by the authors of Matthew and 
Luke, in whose Gospels still further expansion and modification 
are found. This is just what we should expect, for, on this matter 
Christ's most intimate disciples had failed to understand him, and 
ancient ideas of historical writing regarded such modifications as 
entirely legitimate. Fortunately, in this instance, the original words 
of Christ can be separated from the additions with a good deal of 
certainty. 

iMark 14:3-9; Matt. 26:6-13; John 12:1-8. 

2 See Chapter XXXVI. 



The Passion and Resurrection 343 

you always and can do them good whenever you wish : 
but me you will not always have. She has done what 
she could : she has anointed my body beforehand for its 
burial. I tell you that, wherever the gospel shall be 
preached throughout the whole world, this woman's deed 
shall be spoken of as a memorial of her." 

We know that Jesus cared for the poor. He had that 
very afternoon been teaching the Disciples that the eternal 
destiny of men would be determined by their attitude to 
the poor. He valued love also. He knew how much the 
expression of love sweetens life. Under the shadow of 
the Cross, oppressed by the loneliness of his position, 
understood by no one, he was comforted by this costly ex- 
pression of pure devotion. He would not permit parsi- 
mony, even in the name of the poor, to check such expres- 
sions of love either toward himself or others. There is a 
place in a life of love for delicacies as well as for charity. 



CHAPTER LVI 

JUDAS ISCARIOT AND THE CHIEF PRIESTS 

(Mark 14: 1, 2, 10, 11; Matt. 26: 1-5, 14-16; Luke 22: 

1-6.) 

ON Tuesday and Wednesday, while Jesus was so 
successfully avoiding all the intellectual and theo- 
logical traps that scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, 
and Herodians set for him, and winning the admiration 
of the pilgrims in the Temple court, the determination of 
the priests and their friends to 1 get hold of Jesus and put 
him out of the way had steadily increased. They were, 
however, a prudent folk, those priests. They knew how 
popular Jesus was, and, after consultation, they decided 
that they could not venture to arrest him till after the 
Feast was over. This decision, the Gospels tell us, they 
made two days before the Passover, a statement which, 
on account of the Jewish method of counting time, leaves 
us in doubt as to whether it was on Tuesday or Wednes- 
day that the decision was made. 

As has already been said, 1 every company of pilgrims 
who celebrated the Passover in Jerusalem had to buy a 
paschal lamb. As Judas Iscariot was the treasurer of 
the little company of those most closely connected with 
Jesus, it is altogether probable that the task of buying 
the lamb would be left to him. As Jesus had on Mon- 
day driven the marketmen from the Temple, it is almost 
certain that, even if they had come back again, he would 

!See Chapter LII. 

344 



The Passion and Resurrection 345 

not have his paschal lamb purchased there. It is also 
certain that, as the lamb had to be inspected by the 
priests, and there were great throngs in Jerusalem all 
doing the same thing, Judas would not leave these duties 
until Thursday morning. In that year, 30 A.D., the fif- 
teenth of Nisan, when the Passover had to be eaten, 
began on Thursday at sundown, and, lest they should 
trespass on the feast day, the priests on that day began 
the ceremonies connected with the evening sacrifice about 
half -past one in the afternoon. On Thursday, then, such 
business as Judas had to do could be attended to only in 
the morning, and, with all the crowds that were in Jeru- 
salem, we may be sure that Judas, as a good business 
man, bought his lamb at the market outside, perhaps on 
the Mount of Olives, and brought it to the priests for in- 
spection on Wednesday. The priests probably did not 
know Judas. To them he was simply a Jewish peasant. 
Doubtless while they were inspecting his lamb, they talked 
freely before him. Only a little way off in the Temple 
court Jesus was teaching. Perhaps, while they inspected 
the lamb, they could hear his voice saying, "Woe unto you 
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites !" Their cheeks flushed, 
their eyes flashed, they gnashed their teeth, they muttered 
to one another, but not too low for the sharp ears of 
Judas to hear, "Wait till the Feast is over and we will 
silence him !" Judas had his lamb inspected and quietly 
slipped away, but he could not help remembering what he 
had heard. 

There is reason to believe that Judas did not mean to 
be bad. He was a good business man — a good manager. 
He was accustomed to manage ; and he now, as many men 
have done before and since, simply from lack of under- 
standing, became a victim to his own abilities. That 
which under other circumstances was a virtue in him. 



346 Jesus of Nazareth 

thus became his eternal infamy. Judas, like the other 
Disciples, loved Jesus and believed in him. He was 
proud of him; he believed him to be the Messiah. If we 
may venture to try to reconstruct the working of Judas' s 
mind it was something like this: "J esus is the Messiah; 
that is certain. He has said so to us, and the works which 
he performs prove it. God honors him, and God would 
not honor a liar. But the Messiah is to manifest himself 
with miraculous power, blast the lives of those who hate 
him, and tread down his enemies under his feet. This 
Jesus surely has the power to do; his deeds show that. 
This his Messianic office demands; he must, therefore, do 
it. Why, then, does he not go about it? Why does he 
talk about dying?" 

As he pondered these things on Wednesday night, the 
threat of the priests kept coming back to him. Finally 
he thought he saw a way to employ his skill as a manager 
to good advantage. He would create a situation that 
would compel Jesus to show his power as Messiah and 
set up on earth the kingdom of God, and he would at 
the same time punish those priests who hated him. He 
would arrange to seem to place Jesus in their power, but 
would, in reality, place them in Jesus' power. The situa- 
tion would compel Jesus to exhibit his Messianic might, 
and the first outburst of his Messianic majesty would de- 
stroy these plotting priests. As he thought of it, the 
plan seemed altogether workable and desirable. Judas 
was a business man. Naturally he thought he might as 
well make a profit out of the priests, while luring them 
to their destruction, but it is highly improbable that he 
sold his Master for money. He misunderstood the na- 
ture of Jesus' kingdom, as all the Disciples did; he was 
impatient because Jesus, having the power to do so, did 
not set up the Messianic kingdom, and he mistakenly 



The Passion and Resurrection 347 

thought that, by a little management, he could hasten an 
event which all eagerly desired. 

That Thursday morning the Disciples asked Jesus 
where he wished that they prepare for the Passover 
supper. It appears that Jesus had previously arranged 
with a householder of means in the city, the father of 
John Mark, for a room in his house for their company. 
It was in this same house afterward that the early 
Church held its meetings (see Acts 12: 12), though the 
owner had then died, and the house was known as the 
house of his wife Mary. Jesus had not told his Disciples 
of this place, nor did he do so now. He sent Peter and 
John, told them that they would meet at a certain place 
a man with a pitcher of water, and to say to the master of 
the house where the man entered, 'The Teacher saith 
unto thee, Where is the guest-chamber where I shall eat 
the passover with my Disciples ? And he will show you a 
large upper room furnished : there make ready." Peter 
and John went into the city, met the servant as Jesus 
had said they would, followed him home, delivered their 
message to the master of the house, and were shown the 
room. Then they undertook the preparation for the 
sacred meal. In addition to the paschal lamb there was 
unleavened bread, wine enough so that all at the feast 
could have about half a tumbler full when it was diluted, 
and bitter herbs, of which the Talmud mentions five 
kinds. Probably Judas had bought these the day before, 
and Peter and John may have carried them to the house 
with them. 

The chief labor of preparing the feast was to kill the 
paschal lamb and cook it. Before the incense was burned 
for the evening sacrifice or the lamps had been trimmed 
for the night, the paschal lambs were killed in the Temple 
court. The worshipers were admitted to the court of the 



348 Jesus of Nazareth 

priests in three divisions. When the court was full, the 
gates were shut, and, while each worshiper killed his own 
lamb, the priests blew three blasts on the trumpet. Two 
rows of priests formed two lines from the bleeding lambs 
up to the great altar. One line passed up bowls contain- 
ing blood from the dying lambs which was poured at 
the base of the altar, and the other passed back the empty 
bowls. While this was going on the Hallel (Psalms 113- 
118) was chanted by Levites. When all the lambs in the 
court had been slain, the gates were opened, the court 
cleared, and another division was admitted. We do not 
know whether Peter and John were in the first, second, 
or third division on this memorable day, but, knowing 
Peter's ardent, impulsive nature, we may imagine that 
they were in the first. After the lamb had been slain at 
the Temple, it had to be carried away and roasted. A 
Jewish temple at Leontopolis, Egypt, which existed at 
this time, had a series of ovens surrounding it in which 
paschal lambs could be roasted, but we hear of nothing 
of the kind in connection with the Temple at Jerusalem. 
It is probable that Peter and John had to carry the lamb 
to the house of their host, and that a part of his hospital- 
ity consisted in permitting them to roast it in his oven. 
This work occupied Peter and John during most of the 
afternoon. 

Meantime Judas, brooding over the thoughts that had 
come to him, determined to take a hand in affairs. We 
think we are not wrong in supposing that it was his in- 
tention to create a situation which would compel his 
Master to reveal himself as the Messiah. Probably he 
had no thought of betraying Jesus; it was the priests 
whom he intended to trick and betray. So at some time, 
either on Thursday morning or afternoon, he slipped 
away, perhaps under pretext of seeing if the things he 



The Passion and Resurrection 349 

had bought for the festival were all right, and made his 
way to the priests, and intimated that he could deliver 
Jesus into their power. The Gospels of Mark and Luke 
do not tell us just what he said, but, it is probable that he 
told them that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, and in- 
timated that this was a claim, which, if reported to the 
Roman Governor, would enable them to put Jesus out 
of the way. He also seems to have said that he could 
guide them to a spot where they could arrest Jesus dur- 
ing the night with no fear of exciting his Galilean friends. 
Mark and Luke say that the priests were glad, and prom- 
ised to give him money, if he would do it. Matthew says 
that they actually gave him in advance thirty pieces of 
silver. The term he uses implies that they were thirty 
silver shekels, each of which was worth four denarii. If 
this is so*, the sum Judas received would be equivalent to 
the wages for 120 days' work. At any rate, Judas had 
the promise of money, if he did not actually receive it. 

Thus, doubtless with good intentions, Judas yielded 
to his temptation, and entered upon the fateful course 
that was to make his name a synonym of blackest infamy 
for all time. Judas stands alone, only because he be- 
trayed the world's Saviour. Every one who yields to a 
similar temptation, mingling craft and treachery, en- 
deavoring to force God's hand, doing evil that good may 
come, classes himself with Judas. 



CHAPTER LVII 

THE LAST PASSOVER-SUPPER 

(Mark 14:12-31; Matt. 26:17-35; Luke 22:7-38; 
John 13: 1-17: 25; 1 Cor. 11 : 23-26.) 

AS the sun began to decline well toward the western 
/-% horizon, Jesus and the Disciples who had not been 
■*- -** sent to prepare the Passover, perhaps also accom- 
panied by Lazarus, came down the western slope of the 
Mount of Olives, crossed the Kidron, entered the city 
and made their way through the city to the house of the 
father of Mark, which was situated on the western hill 
of Jerusalem, a little way to the south of the splendid 
palace built by Herod the Great. It would be between 
five and six o'clock. 

While the peasants of Palestine usually ate squatting on 
the floor about a dish placed on a small, low table, the 
Passover meal was somewhat more formal. The viands 
were placed on a low table around which the guests re- 
clined on rugs, each having a cushion under his left 
elbow. The right arm was left free to use in eating. As 
they assembled, Jesus said, "With desire I have desired 
to eat this passover with you before I suffer . . . for I 
say unto you, I will not drink from henceforth of the 
fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come." 
By these words he expressed his conviction that the end 
of his earthly life was drawing near. 

As they gathered about the table, the strife among the 
Disciples as to which of them should be greatest broke 

350 



The Passion and Resurrection 351 

out again. Probably their rivalry over this matter showed 
itself now in the effort to decide which of them should 
occupy the places next to their Master. Jesus, as head 
of the company, was the host of the evening, and the 
seats on his right hand and his left would be the places 
of honor. We do not know which of the Disciples started 
the discussion as to who should occupy these seats. Per- 
haps it was James and John, who had previously aspired 
to occupy these places in the Messianic kingdom. This 
strife led Christ to repeat the teaching which he had 
given when on the way from Galilee, and tell them that 
in his kingdom the greatest were those who serve, and 
that he himself was among them as a servant. 

It is generally supposed that John as "the disciple 
whom Jesus loved" reclined that night at the right side 
of Jesus (John 13 : 23), but there is some reason to be- 
lieve that it was Lazarus who occupied that place. We 
are nowhere told that Jesus especially loved John, but we 
are told that he loved Lazarus (John 11:5), and, if we 
follow the tradition preserved in the Gospel of John, the 
latest of the gospels, it is probable that Lazarus was that 
night a member of this select company. What the Gospel 
of Matthew relates concerning the supper also makes it 
probable that the place immediately to the left of Jesus 
was occupied by Judas Iscariot, for during the supper 
Judas appears to have been so near to Christ that he 
could speak to him without, apparently, being overheard 
by the others (Matt. 26:25). If Lazarus and Judas 
were put in these places, it was a distinct rebuke to the 
pushing ambition of James and John. 

The Passover meal began with two thanksgivings, 
which were said by the head of the family, one for the 
feast itself, and the other for the fruit of the vine. After 
Jesus had pronounced these — our gospels mention only 



352 Jesus of Nazareth 

the second of them (see Luke 22: 17) — he gave the cup 
of wine to his Disciples and told them to divide it among 
themselves. The supper then proceeded. After the cup 
had been divided, it was customary for the head of the 
feast to rise and wash his hands. It was at this point that, 
so the Gospel of John tells us, Jesus girded himself with 
a towel and, as an example of that humility and service 
of which he had so recently been speaking, washed the 
feet of the Disciples, beginning with Peter. Peter, gener- 
ous and impulsive always, was shocked that Christ should 
perform for him this menial service, and said, "Thou 
shalt never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "If I wash 
thee not, thou hast no part with me." Upon that Peter's 
feelings rushed to the other extreme, and he said : "Lord, 
not my feet only but also my hands and my head." Jesus 
replied in substance, "That is not necessary. The feet 
are symbolic of the whole." 

It is probable that the ritual of the Passover described 
in the Talmud did not come into use in all its details until 
after the time of Christ. There is reason to believe that 
at the time of which we are speaking, a portion of un- 
leavened bread, of the paschal lamb, and of bitter herbs 
were wrapped together and given by the host to* each 
participant in the feast. This was the way the supper 
was eaten. This was the "sop" mentioned in John 13 : 26. 

After they drank the wine, as Jesus was preparing to 
distribute the food mentioned, he stopped and, looking 
around with a sigh, said, "One of you which eateth with 
me shall betray me," i.e., shall deliver me up to my 
enemies. We have had many examples of the exercise 
on the part of Jesus of what men now call "psychical 
power." He could read the thoughts and motives of 
Judas. The announcement which he now made aston- 
ished and shocked his Disciples. They each began to 



The Passion and Resurrection 353 

say, as we may translate their words, "It isn't I, Lord, 
is it?" Judas, close to Jesus at his left, leaned over 
and said (so the Gospel of Matthew tells us), "Is it I?" 
Jesus replied: 'Thou hast said" — an answer which in 
Jewish usage neither affirmed nor denied; it was non- 
committal. Then, so the tradition in John tells us, 
Peter, who was sitting near enough to "the disciple 
whom Jesus loved," so that he could speak to him in 
an undertone, said, "Tell us who it is of whom he 
speaketh." That disciple, leaning back on Jesus' breast, 
said, "Lord, who is it ?" Jesus said to him : "He 
it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it," 
and, dipping in the dish some bread, roasted lamb, and 
bitter herbs, he gave them to Judas. Soon after this, 
Jesus said to Judas : "That thou doest, do quickly." 
Judas, feeling himself exposed before the whole com- 
pany, arose and went out. 

While they were still at the table eating, Jesus took 
some bread, blessed it by giving thanks for it, broke it, 
and distributing it among them, said: "Take, eat; this is 
my body." According to some ancient texts he said : 
"This is my body which is given for you." Then taking 
another cup of wine, he gave thanks for it again, and, 
passing it around said: "Drink ye all of it; this is my 
blood of the covenant which is shed for many; this do 
in remembrance of me." It was a solemn and holy 
moment. Jesus only understood its full meaning. For 
months the consciousness had been growing upon him, 
not only that he must die, but that his death was to effect 
the salvation of the world. Xow on this last night with 
his Disciples, under the shadow of the Cross, he insti- 
tuted this symbolic rite, which, perpetuated by the 
Church, has become the Eucharist or "Lord's Supper." 

Many interpretations have been put upon Christ's 



354 Jesus of Nazareth 

words as he handed the bread and wine to his Disciples. 
We may not presume to fathom all their meaning, but 
some suggestions of it may not be out of place. Early 
men in many parts of the world have thought that by 
eating the flesh of gods or heroes they gained something 
of the spirit and power of the beings whose flesh they 
consumed. Jesus came into the world to impart to men 
his spirit. If all men had Jesus' power to resist tempta- 
tion, his disposition, and his ability and determination 
to do the will of God, the kingdom of God would already 
be here. He was about to die, and desired to leave be- 
hind an avenue through which during the centuries men 
and women of all degrees of intelligence might, not only 
keep him in remembrance, but imbibe his spirit — his life. 
He chose a symbolism which had been employed from 
the time of the cave-dwelling men. The bread and 
wine became, on the one hand, symbols of his flesh and 
blood, and, on the other, symbols of that life, spirit, atti- 
tude to God which Jesus himself possessed, and which 
he gave his life to impart to men. It is a symbolism 
capable of appealing to all men, whatever their state of 
education or culture, and has been for nineteen hundred 
years the means of helping an untold number to realize 
that they are in some degree partakers of the life of 
God and of the spirit of his Son. 

After this Jesus sat for some time and talked with 
his Disciples. The conversation was in substance as fol- 
lows : "You will all be made to stumble because of me 
to-night, just as the Scriptures say, T will smite the shep- 
herd and the sheep shall be scattered abroad. ' Neverthe- 
less, after I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee." 
Then the impulsive Peter said : "Although all should be 
made to stumble because of thee, yet I will not." Poor, 
ardent, self-confident, unstable Peter! How many of 



The Passion and Resurrection 355 

us are like him ! Jesus looked at him and said : "Truly, 
Peter, before the cock crows twice, thou shalt three times 
deny me." "Oh, no," Peter replied, "even if I had to die 
with thee, I will not deny thee." Whereupon all the 
others said so, too. They were thoroughly sincere, these 
loving Disciples, but the event proved that Jesus knew 
them better than they knew themselves. 

In trying to make them understand the arduous times 
before them, he reminded them of the time he had sent 
them forth without purse or lunch-pouch. Then in strong 
Oriental metaphor he said: "But now let him that has 
purse and wallet take them and he that has no sword let 
him sell his garment and buy one." It was a vivid 
way of saying, "Be prepared for hard and deadly oppo- 
sition." The Disciples, taking him literally, said : "Mas- 
ter, here are two swords." Jesus, doubtless with a sad 
smile, said : "It is enough !" 

Then, according to the tradition preserved in the Gos- 
pel of John, Jesus continued to talk to them and uttered 
some of the most precious of all the words which ever 
fell from his lips. 1 He likened himself to a vine, his Dis- 
ciples to its branches. If they would bear fruit they 
must abide in him. He told them that he was going 
away from them and that it was better that he should, 
for God would send, if he went away, the Comforter 
or Holy Spirit in his stead. He warned them of perse- 
cution and portrayed the service by which they would 
save the world. He bade them not to let their hearts 
be troubled; he told them he was preparing a place 
for them and ultimately they should be with him. He 
told them that God the Father, whom they longed to 

1 John, chapters 14-17. These chapters should be read afresh in 
their entirety. Although the language in which they are expressed 
is that of the author of the Fourth Gospel, the thoughts bear the 
stamp of the mint of Christ. 



356 Jesus of Nazareth 

see, was like him. He offered a beautiful prayer for 
them and all whom they might bring to God. And after 
all this, when they had sung the Hallel (Psalms 113- 
118) together, they left the house of Mark's father, 
went out into the narrow streets of the city, and found 
their way to the western slope of the Mount of Olives. 
Mark himself, who was a large boy, perhaps seventeen 
or eighteen years of age, followed Jesus and the com- 
pany out into the night. He, like his parents, was a 
great admirer of Jesus; he believed him to be a great 
prophet; he loved him. Perhaps some word of Jesus, 
indicating that his death was near, had reached him, 
and with the spirit of love and adventure strong within 
him, he wanted to see what happened. At all events he 
seems to have followed Jesus and his Disciples across the 
Kidron without joining their company. 



CHAPTER LVIII 

IN GETHSEMANE 

(Mark 14:32-52; Matt. 26:36-56; Luke 22:39-53; 
John 18: 1-12.) 

WHEN Jesus and those with him had crossed the 
Kidron they went to an olive orchard on the 
western slope of the Mount of Olives. It is 
called in the gospels Gethsemane, and has been for cen- 
turies commonly referred to as 'The Garden of Geth- 
semane." The name Gethsemane means "oil-vat" or 
"oil-press." It was given to the place because of the 
presence there of an important or large oil-press. Oil- 
presses were made by cutting a big vat in the solid rock. 
At one end there was an upright pillar of stone with a 
hole in it in which a horizontal beam could be inserted. 
Sometimes there were two such stones. When the 
olives were picked, the vat was filled with olives, and a 
long beam placed in the hole in each stone. These 
beams rested on the olives, or on stones which rested 
on the olives, and extended far beyond the vat on the 
other side. Stones were piled on the other end of each 
beam and thus the oil was squeezed out of the olives. 1 
An oil-press was an important part of the equipment of 
every large olive orchard in Palestine, and the ruins of 
olive presses are found in all parts of the country. 
Some of them were made three thousand years before 
Christ. When we think of Gethsemane, then, we are 

1 For illustrations see G. A. Barton, "Archaeology and the Bible," 
Plates 35 and 36. 

357 



358 Jesus of Nazareth 

not to think of a flower garden, but of an olive orchard, 
stretching over a part of the western slope of the Mount 
of Olives. It was a place to which Jesus had often re- 
sorted with his Disciples. Probably it was somewhat 
off the road over the mountain, and had a wall around 
it, so that it was possible to find quiet and seclusion 
there, especially at night. It is probable that Jesus and 
his Disciples, who often spent the night out of doors, 
had slept there at times on some of their visits to Jeru- 
salem. Thither Jesus and his Disciples now retired. It 
was a place well known to Judas; he had often been 
there with Jesus. 

When they reached the olive orchard, Jesus said to 
all, except Peter, James, and John : "Sit ye here, while 
I pray," and going a little way off from the others, he 
said to these three, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
even unto death; abide ye here and watch." Then, go- 
ing forward a little, but not so far but that they could 
hear what he said, he fell on his face and said : "O my 
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nev- 
ertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." He continued 
to pray for a long time. The Disciples perhaps heard 
more, but these are all the words of his prayer which 
they have reported. As Jesus prayed he was in agony; 
he was undergoing an inward struggle, and the Disciples 
noticed that great beads of perspiration stood out upon 
neck and forehead and then fell to the ground. In the 
moonlight (the moon was full) the perspiration looked 
like drops of blood. 

Why did Jesus pray in this way? It was not because 
he was not brave, but because he was so human. He 
really shared our human life. One of the mysteries of 
our mental and spiritual life is the ebb and flow of feel- 
ing. Sometimes we feel exalted in spirit and able to 



The Passion and Resurrection 359 

do or endure anything. At other times, especially when 
tired, we are depressed and discouraged. Life seems 
hard, pain unendurable, duty appalling. There is much 
evidence that Jesus during his life had shared with us 
this ebb and flow of feeling. Weary with work, ex- 
hausted with hours of strenuous labor in helping others, 
it had always been his habit to seek during the night or 
in the early morning some quiet place where he could 
pray; and there, pouring out his heart to God and com- 
muning with him, he renewed his strength and regained 
the power to go back to his work. Now in this greater 
crisis, with the Cross so near, he instinctively sought 
relief and strength in prayer. 

We cannot suppose that we understand all his thought 
and feeling; it was so deep and great as to be beyond us. 
Nevertheless we can enter sympathetically into a little 
of it. For weeks he had foreseen that he must die a 
violent death; he had bravely faced it and had come to 
Jerusalem, knowing that here death would meet him. 
He was, however, a young man. The currents of life 
were strong within him. His humanity was so real that 
he loved life, and now that he was weary with days 
of strife and discussion with adversaries, and had far 
into the night undergone the strain of uttering parting 
and loving words to his Disciples, the fate before him 
seemed to him in his weariness to be harder than he 
could bear. He was to be cut off in his prime with his 
work undone. Even his trusted Disciples did not com- 
prehend God as he did or as he had tried to teach them 
to do; they had still altogether material and erroneous 
notions of the kingdom of God. It was a hard lot 
under such circumstances to die. Perhaps even he was 
tempted to think that he was a failure — that he had lived 
in vain. How he loved his Jewish brethren! How he 



360 Jesus of Nazareth 

longed to open their eyes so that they might see God 
and life as they really are — might break away from tra- 
ditional rules and hopes of revenge and material empire 
as the highest good God had for man, and enter upon 
their real spiritual inheritance of union with God in life 
and of service for the salvation of the world! He had 
tried to do this, but, instead of letting him lead them, 
their hearts were filled with hatred of him and at that 
very moment they were plotting his death. How he 
loved the world! How he longed to help all men to 
live the satisfying life with God that he had lived! But 
between him and the world stood his Jewish brethren. 
He had devoted his life for these months to them, and 
they were cutting him off before he could do anything 
for the unnumbered multitudes of God's children beyond 
Israel's borders. His tender love was baffled; his heart, 
sensitive to hate beyond our comprehension, was tor- 
tured by the malignity of his enemies. Then Judas con- 
stituted another element of his agony. He loved Judas 
and the double dealing of Judas stung him to the quick. 
Such are some of the sorrows which, we may reverently 
presume, weighed upon the soul of Jesus as, prostrate 
on the ground in Gethsemane, he sought strength to go 
forward and endure. 

He prayed so long that the Disciples, watchful at 
first, fell asleep. Poor fellows, it was very late and, 
like all the peasantry of Palestine, they had arisen early 
the morning before. After a while Jesus arose, went 
to them, aroused them, gently chided them for their in- 
ability to watch with him for an hour, and then went 
back to his prayer. He was, however, very gentle with 
them. He knew that in spirit they were with him, 
though physical weariness made them sleep. A second 
and a third time he came back and found them asleep. 



The Passion and Resurrection 361 

By this time communion with God had accomplished its 
work. Through prayer he had been refreshed; he had 
regained strength and courage. He told them that they 
could sleep on. Soon, however, he aroused them again 
and said, "Arise, let us be going: behold he is at hand 
that betrayeth me." 

In order to understand the course of events, we must 
now go back in thought to the palace of the high priest. 
When Judas withdrew from the house of John Mark, 
after having partaken of the Passover, he went appar- 
ently to a place appointed; it was either the Temple or 
the high priest's palace. There he was detained until 
midnight or later. The priests had laid their plans clev- 
erly to take advantage of the offer of Judas. It has 
often been supposed that in their eagerness to get rid of 
Christ they acted illegally, but recent investigations by 
unprejudiced scholars have made it probable that they 
were careful to keep within the forms of law. While 
it seems clear that at some points of their procedure they 
departed from the rules later laid down in the Talmud, 
we are not sure that those traditions always represent the 
actual practice in the time of Christ, and it seems prob- 
able that they had some precedent for everything they did. 
They accomplished the death of Jesus by legal means. 
Their sin was not that they went beyond the Law, but 
that they failed to appreciate and reverence the greatest, 
purest, and best person ever born, and allowed their 
devotion to their ecclesiastical organization and its tra- 
ditions to goad them on to a judicial murder. In this 
sin, however, they do not stand alone; others have com- 
mitted it on lesser victims many times in many countries. 

Under the Roman Government the Sanhedrin, or 
Jewish council, had jurisdiction over the Temple and all 
religious matters throughout Judaea and Galilee. For the 



362 Jesus of Nazareth 

purpose of keeping order in the Temple, they had a 
Temple-guard composed of Levites. They were a kind 
of Temple-police, and they were under the control and 
direction of the Sanhedrim It was these Temple-police, 
who at an earlier time had been sent with Nicodemus to 
arrest Jesus. 1 This police force was under the command 
of officers who are in the English New Testament called 
"Captains"; the Greek has a word which is sometimes 
rendered "Generals." On one occasion in the reign of 
the Roman emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.) they were 
employed in a conflict between the Samaritans and Gali- 
leans far from Jerusalem. It was this Temple-police 
that were employed to arrest Christ. While the San- 
hedrin, with the high priest at its head, had the right to 
make an arrest by means of this police, they had no 
right to inflict capital punishment. That power the 
Romans had taken away from them. If, then, they 
would have Jesus legally put to death, they must arrest 
him and find against him some charge that the Roman 
governor could regard as a capital offense and convince 
the governor of its truth. They had a right to arrest 
Jesus with their guard for this purpose, and this they 
now proceeded to do. 

Some have called the arrest illegal because they em- 
ployed a traitor in order to< find Jesus, but police forces 
in all ages and countries have made use of evidence that 
has come to them through such sources, and, if we con- 
demn the Jewish authorities on that score, we should 
condemn practically every government that has ever 
existed. In order to carry out their plans the priests 
waited until after midnight, and then, at a time when 
all the populace and the pilgrims with whom Jesus was 
so popular were sleeping, scattered in many homes and 
1 See Chapter XXXVI. 



The Passion and Resurrection 363 

camps, they sent a detachment of this Temple-police 
force, commanded by a captain and accompanied by one 
or more priests, to arrest Jesus. The force probably 
was not very large, though a few stragglers from the 
streets may have followed. There were not, however, 
many of these at this late hour of the night. To the 
boy John Mark, who appears to have been still watching 
near Gethsemane, it seemed in the moonlight like a 
"multitude" or as we might translate his phrase "a 
crowd" (see Mark 14:43). The force, guided by 
Judas to Gethsemane, came upon Jesus and his Disciples 
soon after Jesus had said that the traitor was near. As 
they came Judas went straight up to Jesus and saying, 
"O my Master," kissed him. The kiss was the sign by 
which Judas had told the priests that he would let them 
know which one of the group was Jesus. 

As soon as Judas had kissed Jesus the Temple-guards 
seized him. Then the impulsive Peter, having one of 
the two swords of which the company were possessors, 
drew it and tried to attack the guard. The attack was, 
of course, repulsed. Peter succeeded in cutting off an 
ear of one of them. Jesus told Peter to put up his 
sword, telling him that those who draw the sword shall 
perish by the sword. Then turning to the leaders of the 
guards he asked them why they had come out against 
him, as against a robber, armed with swords and clubs. 
When he was daily with them in the Temple teaching, 
he; said, they did not take him. Then he added, perhaps 
partly to himself, "this is your hour, and the power of 
darkness." Thus, yielding himself without resistance to 
his captors, he allowed them to march away with him 
to Jerusalem. 

When the Disciples saw that their master was a pris- 
oner and that they could not help him, they all ran away 



364 Jesus of Nazareth 

and hid themselves. Their conduct afterward showed 
that they had a degree of courage, but they feared, espe- 
cially after Peter's attack upon one of the guards, that 
they too might be arrested; so they fled. 

As Jesus was led a prisoner toward Jerusalem, John 
Mark, who had been watching near, followed along. 
He had not, like the Disciples, taken part in the struggle 
in the olive orchard, and he hoped to see what happened 
and yet escape notice. He wore that night a fine linen 
garment without the heavy coat which usually forms a 
man's outer covering in cool weather in that country. 
As he followed along he was, however, detected by the 
alert guard, one of whom tried to seize him. The guard, 
however, caught hold of the linen garment, and Mark, 
slipping out of this, fled and escaped. Later, when he 
wrote his Gospel, he mentioned the incident, without 
giving his name. 

Thus Gethsemane became the scene of the most sacred 
agony and of the vilest treachery. 



CHAPTER LIX 

THE EXAMINATION BEFORE THE JEWISH AUTHORITIES 

(Mark 14 : 53-72 ; Matt. 26 : 57-27 : 10; Luke 22 : 53-71 ; 
John 18: 13-27.) 

ACCORDING to the Gospel of John, when Jesus 
h\ was led away from Gethsemane he was taken to 
-*• the house of Annas, which was situated on the 
eastern slope of the western hill. Annas is one of the 
best known persons in the Jewish history of that time. 
He was once himself high priest for five or six years, 
and, after he was deposed by the Romans, continued 
to be even more influential than the actual high priest. 
He and his sons controlled the Temple market which 
Jesus four days before had driven from the Temple 
courts. This market was a source of revenue that helped 
to make Annas and his house rich. After the deposition 
of Annas from the high priesthood, no fewer than five 
of his sons filled that office. Caiaphas, who was high 
priest in this year 30, was a son-in-law of Annas, and 
later a grandson of Annas held that office. Annas was 
a crafty Sadducee, for many years a sort of boss exer- 
cising perhaps more real power than when he held the 
office of supreme priest. 

We are not told what happened when Jesus was taken 
to the house of Annas, or why he was taken there. The 
events which St. John seems to place in the house of 
Annas are, by the earlier Gospels, said to have occurred 
in the house of Caiaphas. Perhaps the guards who had 

365 



366 Jesus of Nazareth 

arrested Jesus stopped to let Annas know that the ardent 
reformer whose zeal a few days before had so nearly 
ruined his business in the Temple courts was now actually 
within his power. From the house of Annas Jesus was 
led to the house of Caiaphas, a little further up the hill. 
The ruins of it were uncovered only a few years ago. 

At the palace of Caiaphas the Jewish Sanhedrin or 
supreme council had been assembled. This council acted 
both as an executive body and a court. It consisted of 
seventy members, but when it sat as a court only twenty- 
three had to be present. That was probably the number 
present on this fateful night. Some writers have 
scouted the idea that the Sanhedrin could meet in the 
small hours of the morning, and have drawn ludicrous 
pictures of Caiaphas sending messengers around in the 
middle of the night to arouse its members from sleep, 
but such writers forget that the priests had bargained 
with Judas the afternoon before; that they felt sure of 
their victim, and had, no doubt, arranged for a quorum 
of the court to await during the night, at the house of 
the high priest, the arrest of their victim. Under the 
circumstances the meeting was most natural. Later 
Jewish traditional law forbade the night trial of a capi- 
tal case, but there is no evidence that such a regulation 
was in existence in the time of Christ. 

Peter, when he fled in Gethsemane, had simply sought 
to escape arrest; he had not abandoned his master. He 
followed along at a sufficient distance to escape notice 
and yet to see what they did with Jesus. He was ac- 
companied, so the Gospel of John tells us, by "the dis- 
ciple whom Jesus loved," who, as we have seen, may 
have been Lazarus. This disciple was known at the high 
priest's palace. This would be natural, if it were Laz- 
arus, as his home was not far away; so he went into the 



The Passion and Resurrection 367 

palace, while Peter remained outside. Later, using his 
acquaintance with the maid who kept the door, this dis- 
ciple secured Peter's entrance to the court, where a char- 
coal fire burned in a brazier, similar to those still used 
in Palestine. Peter joined the group of Temple guards 
and officers who were warming themselves by the fire. 

Meantime, Jesus was taken before the assembled San- 
hedrin in an upper room and the examination was begun. 
The object was to obtain legal evidence on which a 
capital charge against Jesus could be lodged with the 
Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The priests could not 
employ Judas Iscariot as a witness, for their rules for- 
bade the condemnation of a man on the evidence of a 
traitor, and, in this matter, they abode by their rules of 
procedure. Not all the details of the examination are 
reported to us. Several witnesses appeared and gave 
testimony against him, but their testimony was contra- 
dictory, and the law forbade the condemnation of a man 
on the testimony of one witness. The court, therefore, 
could make no use of this testimony. Then certain men 
came forward and said that they heard Jesus say : "I will 
destroy this Temple which is made with hands, and will 
build another made without hands ;" but their testimony 
was so contradictory in details that they could not con- 
vict him on it. 

What the Sanhedrin desired all the time was to obtain 
testimony that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. As 
Messiah he would, in their opinion, be a rebel against 
Rome, and they could accuse him to Pilate of treason. 
That he claimed to be the Messiah, Judas had doubtless 
told them, for Judas knew it, but no one of those whom 
they could summon as witnesses had ever heard Jesus 
make this claim; he had spoken of it only within the 
circle of his Disciples. Finally the high priest, in order 



368 Jesus of Nazareth 

to carry their point, arose, and, addressing Jesus with 
the language prescribed by Jewish legal procedure for 
addressing a witness (the Gospels give this in a very 
incomplete and abbreviated form), asked "Art thou the 
Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" Jesus replied, 
"Thou hast said." While this reply is a non-committal 
answer, equivalent to "that is your say so for it," it was 
not a denial. That any man should fail to deny vehe- 
mently that he was the Son of God, the expected heavenly 
Messiah, seemed to a Jew presumptuous blasphemy. The 
non-committal answer of Jesus was, accordingly, taken 
as a virtual confession. The high priest therefore rent 
his garment in token of horror, and, turning to the 
other judges asked: "What further need have we of 
witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What do 
you think?" They all answered, "He is worthy of 
death." 

One most desirous of being absolutely fair to these 
Jews has to confess that they violated their own 
rules of procedure, at least as those rules were afterward 
reported in the Talmud. It was forbidden to put a 
prisoner to death, if the verdict was unanimous; the 
supposition being that in that case the court was preju- 
diced. This rule, if it was in existence so early, was, 
however, now ignored, and it was taken for granted that 
the first step in the legal condemnation of Jesus had been 
taken. 

Jewish procedure, as formulated in the Talmud, like- 
wise required that, when a man was condemned to death 
by the Sanhedrin, the sentence was not valid until it had 
been again voted by the judges at a meeting held a day 
later. These two meetings could not rightly be held on 
the same day. They observed this rule in part. They 
adjourned the case to a second meeting of the Sanhedrin 



The Passion and Resurrection 369 

to be held after daylight, but. if they knew the rule, they 
violated its spirit in not deferring the second meeting 
till another day. Had they so deferred it, however, it 
would have fallen on the Sabbath, when a meeting could 
not be held, and, if they had this law, which is doubtful, 
they doubtless felt that the urgency of the case justified 
them in not following the exact wording of the law. 

As some hours must elapse before the Sanhedrin could 
again assemble, they once more delivered Jesus to the 
Temple guards. The guards now regarded Jesus as a 
condemned prisoner and they amused themselves by 
abusing him. They spat upon him, blindfolded him, and 
then as one after another struck him, they said : "Pro- 
phesy unto us, thou Messiah, who is he who struck thee?" 
As Christ had been silent in the presence of those who 
accused him before the Jewish court, so he was silent 
now. We can all imagine what a sensitive, pure person 
would suffer under such circumstances, and Christ was 
the most sensitive and pure of all who have ever lived. 
He bore himself now with simple, silent dignity. As 
was said of him afterward. He. "when he was reviled, 
reviled not again: when he suffered, threatened not; but 
committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." x 

While these events, so freighted with tragic meaning, 
were being enacted in the upper room. Peter had been 
for a time warming himself by the fire below. Of course 
everybody in the palace that night knew what was going 
on, and why night was being turned into day. The ar- 
rest and trial of Jesus would naturally become a topic 
of conversation among both servants and Temple guards. 
The maid who kept the door drew near the fire at times 
and listened to the conversation. As these people were 
all in the service of the priests, we can easily imagine 

1 1 Peter 2 : 23. 



37 o Jesus of Nazareth 

that the remarks made were of a nature hostile to Jesus 
and his friends. As the maid stood and listened she 
turned to Peter and said, "You were with the Nazarene, 
Jesus." It was a dangerous place for a friend of Jesus. 
Were he detected, Peter did not know what might hap- 
pen to him. In Gethsemane his attack upon the Temple 
guard had been ignored in the confusion, but, if caught 
here, it might go hard with him. His first instinct was 
one of self-preservation, and he said: "I neither know 
nor understand what you mean." He then left the fire 
and went out into the porch and heard a cock crow. The 
maid was going in and out about her duties and saw 
Peter standing in the porch, and said to the bystanders : 
"This man is one of the Nazarenes." This time Peter 
flatly denied it. But even his denial revealed his iden- 
tity, for his way of pronouncing words told from whence 
he came. Here in America we can tell by the way many 
people pronounce words which contain the letter "a" 
whether they come from New England or Philadelphia; 
by the way they pronounce words containing the com- 
bination "ou" whether they come from Philadelphia, 
Baltimore or Virginia; and by the way they pronounce 
certain other words, whether they come from New York. 
In Palestine the differences of pronunciation between 
different parts of the country, and even different vil- 
lages, have always been much greater than here. One 
of the bystanders, therefore, said to Peter: "You are a 
Galilean, for your speech betrays you." Peter, having 
started on a cowardly course, felt compelled to persist 
in it. He was of volcanic temperament and was nerv- 
ous and overwrought by the events of the night, so he 
began to curse and swear, to give emphasis to the state- 
ment : "I know not this man of whom you speak." He 
had hardly finished speaking when he heard a cock crow 



The Passion and Resurrection 371 

again. This recalled to his mind the words of Jesus 
predicting his denial. He remembered his boast of read- 
iness to die with Jesus, so confidently uttered only a few 
hours before, and contrasted it with his shameful denial 
of his matchless friend, and leaving the house of Caia- 
phas, he wept bitterly. 

As soon as morning came, a second meeting of the 
Sanhedrin was held, in order to confirm, in accordance 
with their Oral Law, the sentence passed at their meeting 
held in the night. According to the later usage as 
recorded in the Talmud, this meeting seems to have been 
unlawful on still another ground. Such meetings were 
prohibited before the morning sacrifice had been com- 
pleted, and that was not done before about nine o'clock, 
but in their desire to make haste before the friends of 
Jesus could rally, they apparently ignored this rule, if 
they had it. It is barely possible that on this morning, 
they had offered the sacrifice earlier than usual. This 
second meeting was probably brief. There was no hear- 
ing and, so far as we know, no debate. The sentence 
reached in the night was confirmed, and they led their 
prisoner away to the Prsetorium, to make their accusa- 
tion against him to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. 

Before this hour arrived, however, the priests had an 
unexpected visitor. It was Judas Iscariot. Poor fel- 
low ! The events of the night had turned out far other- 
wise than he expected. Instead of revealing himself as 
the Messiah, as Judas had thought Jesus would do, Jesus 
had submitted to his enemies, and had actually been con- 
demned. Instead of trapping the priests, as Judas had 
intended, he had betrayed his best and most loved friend. 
His astute management, instead of hastening the king- 
dom of God, had wrecked everything that Jesus had 
through the past months built up. Now Judas saw in 



37 2 Jesus of Nazareth 

its real ugliness the nature of his deed. He came back 
to the priests with the thirty shekels and said : "I have 
sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood." With a sneer 
the priests said, in effect, 'That is nothing to us; that 
is your affair," and turned away from him. 

Poor Judas threw down the money in the Temple ; he 
hated it now. He went out a distracted and despairing 
man. He was blackened with infamy, he thought, that 
was unforgivable. The evil he had done was past re- 
pairing. He felt he could not endure life; he went and 
hanged himself. 



CHAPTER LX 

THE TRIAL BEFORE PILATE 

(Mark 15: 1-20; Matt. 27: 11 -31; Luke 23: 1-25; John 
18: 28-19: 16a.) 

PONTIUS PILATE, the Roman governor, like 
other Roman governors of the province of Judaea, 
usually resided at Csesarea, the seaport capital of 
the province. At the time of the Jewish Passover and 
other great feasts the governors used, however, to go to 
Jerusalem for a few days, so as to be on the spot, to 
quell any disturbance which might arise. The Jews were 
restive under Roman rule, and when congregated in large 
numbers and stirred by religious and patriotic feeling 
they frequently created disturbances. The Romans re- 
garded them as turbulent and difficult to govern, so at 
these times the governor was accustomed to be on hand. 
This was doubtless one reason why the Sanhedrin was 
so glad to take advantage of the agency of Judas; it 
enabled them to accuse Jesus to the Roman governor 
without delay, and thus reduced the danger of popular 
interference on his behalf which delay might make 
possible. 

Their fear of a popular uprising in the interest of 
Jesus was what urged them on now. They desired to 
secure his condemnation, if possible, before his friends 
could rally in his behalf. Perhaps, in view of the offer 
Judas had made them on the preceding day, they had 
then sent word to Pilate that they expected to bring 

373 



374 Jesus of Nazareth 

before him a dangerous prisoner the next morning, and 
had arranged for a hearing. In any case messengers 
must have conveyed to the governor as early as possible 
on Friday morning the fact that they wished to bring 
such a prisoner before him for trial. 

At the northwest corner of the Temple area there had 
stood a fortress since the time of Nehemiah (444 B.C.). 
It had been rebuilt by Herod the Great and named An- 
tonia for his friend Mark Antony. Adjoining this 
fortress on the north a Praetorium which served as a 
government building and barracks had been built ; it was 
really an extension of the fortress. In the fortress and 
Praetorium a detachment of Roman soldiers was always 
kept, whose duty it was to maintain order, and in the 
Praetorium the governor resided when at Jerusalem. 
Hither, at the early hour at which Pilate had arranged 
to hear the case, the Jewish authorities went with their 
prisoner. According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 
Pilate had set his judgment seat that morning in the open 
court and there he sat thoughout the trial. This ac- 
cords with Roman usage and is probably in accordance 
with the facts. 

The trial began by the presentation of the charge 
against Jesus on the part of the members of the Jewish 
Sanhedrin. This accusation was, as reported by Luke, 
that he was perverting the Jewish nation {i.e., undermin- 
ing their allegiance to Rome), that he claimed to be the 
expected Jewish Messiah, or king, and that he endeav- 
ored to make their state independent so that tribute to 
Rome should cease. Some writers have regarded this as 
quite a different charge from that on which Jesus had 
been condemned by the Sanhedrin. They point out that 
that condemnation was for blasphemy, while here the 
charge is political. Such writers overlook the fact that 



The Passion and Resurrection 375 

the claim of Jesus to Messiahship, which Judas had be- 
trayed and which the Sanhedrin believed they had es- 
tablished on Jesus' own confession, appeared in very 
different aspects when viewed respectively from the point 
of view of Jewish law and from that of Roman political 
government. From the point of view of the Jewish 
leaders it was their duty to consider it in its former 
aspect, when acting within the sphere of their own ec- 
clesiastical law, and in the latter aspect, when acting as 
subjects of the Roman empire. The charge presented 
before both bodies was the same charge, only in the one 
case it was considered from the point of view of the 
Jewish religion, and in the other case, of Roman politics. 
After the charge had been presented, Pilate turned to 
Jesus and asked: "Art thou the king of the Jews?" 
This was equivalent to asking him to plead guilty or not 
guilty to the charge brought against him. Matthew, 
Mark, and Luke tell us that Jesus gave the non-commit- 
tal answer, "Thou sayest." This was not a denial, but 
it was not an admission; it left the charge to be proved 
by the evidence. 

According to the Gospel of John, which perhaps in 
this case recalls more of the details, Jesus answered 
Pilate's first question by asking in substance : "Do you 
use the word 'king' in the Roman sense, or have the Jews 
been talking to you, and do you mean by it the Jewish 
Messiah?" The conversation that followed may be thus 
translated: Pilate answered "Am I a Jew? Your own 
nation has delivered you to me; what have you done?" 
Then Jesus replied: "My kingdom is not of this world; 
if it were, my servants would fight, that I should not be 
delivered to the Jews; but my kingdom is not from 
hence." Pilate then asked, "Art thou a king, then?" 
Jesus replied : "Thou sayest that I am a king. I was 



376 Jesus of Nazareth 

born and came into the world to bear witness to the 
truth." It is noteworthy that Jesus did not deny the 
charge that he was a king, but claimed kingship in such 
a peculiar way that Pilate was convinced that there was 
no political danger in it. According to Luke and John, 
the governor then turned to the Jewish accusers and 
said in substance : 'There is nothing in this man with 
which I can find fault. He may claim to be a king, but 
it is not in a sense which makes it necessary to punish 
him." The Jews replied, "He stirs up the people, be- 
ginning from Galilee even unto this place." 

The account of the trial is very brief in the Gospels. 
They clearly do not tell us all that was said. Perhaps 
we may give some credence to the apochryphal "Acts of 
Pilate," which state that the Jews gave evidence in dif- 
ferent ways against Jesus, and others gave evidence in 
his favor. Some, testifying for him, showed that he 
had done much good without breaking the Law; others 
showed that, though he broke the Law, as when he healed 
on the Sabbath day,, the blessings of his work more than 
made up for the transgression. Testimony such as this, 
if really given, tended to strengthen Pilate's conviction 
that Jesus intended no political offense. 

At the mention of Galilee, so St. Luke tells us, Pilate 
thought of another expedient. Herod Antipas, the tet- 
rarch of Galilee, was at that moment in Jerusalem. He, 
too, had come up to the Passover; he was staying in the 
old palace of his father, Herod the Great, on the west 
side of the city, parts of which may still be seen in the 
modern fortress by the "Jaffa Gate." Pilate had com- 
plete jurisdiction over the case, for, if Jesus were a dan- 
gerous political agitator he had been arrested within the 
bounds of Pilate's province; but Pilate did not believe 
Jesus to be a dangerous character, and so, with the hope 



The Passion and Resurrection $77 

of getting Herod to employ his influence with the Jews 
to persuade them to drop their charge, he directed that 
Jesus should be taken across the city to Herod's palace. 
He accordingly adjourned his court for a time and sent 
Jesus to Herod, doubtless with a message which secured 
the desired examination of the prisoner by the tetrarch. 

This was the Herod who had been disturbed by the 
reputation of Jesus as a prophet, who had thought, on 
account of his uneasy conscience, that Jesus might be 
John the Baptist come to life again, and who had sought 
to arrest Jesus. He was naturally glad, therefore, when 
Jesus appeared before him. Herod had long been on 
unfriendly terms with Pilate, but the compliment Pilate 
paid him in sending Jesus for him to examine disarmed 
his enmity, and made him Pilate's friend. Herod An- 
tipas was the man whom Jesus had called "that fox" — 
the only man of whom Jesus had ever thus spoken — and 
now at last the two stood face to face. Herod asked 
Jesus many questions, but Jesus stood in quiet dignity 
and refused to answer them. Herod had not jurisdic- 
tion over him now. Herod took his revenge by dressing 
Jesus up in gorgeous apparel as though he were a mock 
king, making sport of him and permitting his guards 
to do the same, and, thus dressed, he sent Jesus back to 
Pilate. The time had been when Herod would have put 
Jesus to death could he have got him in his power, but, 
now that he had been arrested in Pilate's province, it 
was impolitic to do so. Had he yielded to his desires 
he might have offended the Government at Rome. 

When Jesus returned to the Prsetorium Pilate resumed 
the judgment seat and made another effort not to have 
the Sanhedrin press its charges. He pointed out that 
Herod had found nothing worthy of death in Jesus; his 
claim to Messiahship was rather to be made sport of. 



378 Jesus of Nazareth 

He said to them in substance : "I am accustomed to re- 
lease to you at Passover time a Jewish prisoner; let me 
release Jesus as this year's prisoner. I will scourge him 
(that will be a sufficient punishment) and release him. 

There happened at that very time to be lying in prison 
at Jerusalem a Jew named Barabbas, who had done the 
very things which the Jews were trying to persuade 
Pilate that Jesus was likely to do. He had engaged in 
armed rebellion and in the struggle that followed had 
committed murder. When Pilate proposed to release 
Jesus as the political act of grace for that year, the Jew- 
ish leaders cried, ''No ! no ! not him, but Barabbas." 
"What, then, shall I do with him whom you call king of 
the Jews?" said Pilate. They and all their followers 
who had crowded into the court to witness the trial 
cried, "Crucify him!" Pilate said, "Why? what crime 
has he actually committed?" They cried more vehe- 
mently, "Crucify him! Let him be crucified." Pilate 
had become convinced early in the examination that, 
although the charge brought against Jesus by the Jews 
was technically correct, so far as the safety of the State 
was concerned, Jesus was harmless; hence his efforts to 
persuade the Jews to withdraw their charge, or accept 
the release of Jesus. A late tradition embodied in the 
Gospel of Matthew says that Pilate's opinion of Jesus 
was strengthened by a message from his wife who sent 
to say, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man: 
for I have suffered many things this day in a dream 
because of him." 

The tumultuous cries of the Jews rendered, however, 
further argument with them useless. They would not 
withdraw the accusation against Jesus, but were bound 
to press it. The Gospel of John tells us that they said : 
"If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar's friend : 



The Passion and Resurrection 379 

for whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against 
Caesar." That was the crux of the case. Jesus had 
admitted that he was, in a sense, a king. Technically 
the Jews were right. If they pressed the case, Pilate 
was bound to condemn Jesus, or run the risk of having to 
explain at Rome why he had not rid the province of one 
who was planning rebellion. He, therefore, yielded, 
passed sentence upon Jesus, and delivered him to the 
Roman soldiery that the sentence might be carried out. 

Numerous writers have claimed that the trial of Christ 
before Pilate was illegal, because Pilate did not conduct 
the case in accordance with the legal procedure followed 
in the city of Rome. Much evidence has been collected 
of late, however, especially from papyri found in Egypt, 
to prove that in the provinces of the Roman empire 
capital cases were not conducted at any time in the lei- 
surely and formal manner in which they were carried on 
at Rome. A governor visited a part of his province for 
a few days at a time, and heard and rapidly disposed of 
numerous cases. Many of the governors were military 
men, and reached their decisions often in accord with 
canons of their own making rather than those of the 
Roman courts. At no time did residents of the prov- 
inces enjoy the legal protection granted to the Romans 
unless they had in some way, like St. Paul, become 
Roman citizens. So far as we can now judge, the trial 
of Jesus before Pilate was quite in accord with legal pro- 
cedure in the Roman provinces. 

After Jesus had been condemned to crucifixion, the 
soldiery scourged him. It was a terrible ordeal, but 
apparently inflicted in mercy on those who were con- 
demned to be crucified, that their physical strength might 
be in part exhausted, so that they would not have to 
endure so long the more awful tortures of the cross. 



380 Jesus of Nazareth 

The Gospels pass rapidly over these scenes of horror. 
In order to be scourged Jesus was stripped, his hands 
tied behind him, his back bent, and he was bound to a 
column. He was then whipped with lashes of leather 
loaded with lead, or spikes, or bones, which lacerated the 
back and chest and face. The scourging was sometimes 
continued until the victim fell down a bleeding mass of 
torn flesh. This terrible punishment the sensitive Jesus 
now suffered. 

When it was finished, he could still stand, and while 
preparations for his crucifixion were being completed, 
he underwent another mocking from the Roman soldiery 
more cruel than that which he had suffered from the 
Temple guards. Again they threw the purple robe of 
Antipas over his bleeding shoulders, they improvised a 
crown of cruel thorns and pressed it upon his head, and 
cried "Hail, king of the Jews !" Then, sometimes smit- 
ing him and sometimes bowing their knees to him in 
mock humility, these men whose trade was war, whose 
natures like their occupation were unrefined, whose sport 
was coarse, and who supposed Jesus to be an unsuccess- 
ful rebel, amused themselves by insulting him. Thus 
crafty ecclesiastics, the Roman politician, the corrupt tet- 
rarch, and the hardened soldiery all had their part in this 
supreme tragedy. 



CHAPTER LXI 

THE CRUCIFIXION 

(Mark 15:21-47; Matt. 27:32-66; Luke 23:26-56; 
John 19: 16I3-42.) 

CRUCIFIXION as a punishment is a survival of 
primitive savagery. Probably the Assyrians are 
responsible for the use of it in the eastern Med- 
iterranean world. They were the most brutal and sav- 
age of all the nations which built up empires in the East. 
Their kings boast of impaling men on stakes and of 
skinning them alive. In Phoenicia crucifixion seems to 
have survived as a form of barbarity inherited from the 
Assyrians. A Jewish king, Alexander Jannseus, had 
once employed it, but the Romans did not adopt it until 
after the time of Julius Caesar. By 30 A.D. it seems to 
have been frequently used as a punishment in Judaea. 

Crosses were of three kinds : what we call the St. An- 
drew's cross (X), the cross in the form of a 71, and 
the so-called Latin cross (i~). Christ's cross was prob- 
ably of the last mentioned kind. The upright beam 
was long enough to permit the infixing of an inscription 
above his head, and his feet seem not to have been lifted 
far from the ground. Even in his weakened condition 
he could speak to those about him and be heard by them. 
While the beams of the cross were being prepared, the 
soldiers, as already observed, mocked and tortured Jesus. 

When the cross was ready the soldiers placed the 
beams on Jesus' shoulders fit was customary to make 

381 



382 Jesus of Nazareth 

those convicted to crucifixion carry their own crosses) 
and started for the place of execution. This was a spot 
called Golgotha, or "Place of a Skull" x (probably because 
it was shaped like a skull), somewhere outside the walls 
of Jerusalem. Much as we should like to know, we 
cannot be certain just where this spot was. There has 
been a tradition since about 325 A.D. that it was on or 
near the spot where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
now stands. On the other hand, in modern times a 
theory has grown up and become traditional that Gol- 
gotha was the hill over the so-called Jeremiah's Grotto, 
just north of the modern Damascus Gate. There is 
much more reason to believe that it was on the former 
site than on the latter. If only we knew just where the 
north wall of Jerusalem ran at that time, we should feel 
more certain about it. Toward Golgotha, wherever it 
may have been situated, Jesus, escorted by soldiers, now 
took his way. As always in such cases, a throng fol- 
lowed. Some of these were priests who went from 
hatred; others went from idle curiosity; they wanted to 
enjoy the horror of seeing the torture. 

By the time they reached the gate of the city through 
which they had to pass, Jesus, weakened by the terrible 
ordeal of scourging, sank under his cross, no longer able 
to carry it. There happened to be coming into the city 
at that moment through that gate a Jew from distant 
Cyrene in North Africa, named Simon. Perhaps he 
had come to Jerusalem to attend the Passover. Cyrene 
was a long way off; perhaps this was the only time in 
Simon's life that he had ever been able to attend it. 
Possibly he had come to Jerusalem to live, for he is said 
to have been coming from the field. So far as we know 
he knew nothing of Jesus, but as he chanced just at that 
1 "Calvary" is derived from the Latin translation of it. 



The Passion and Resurrection 383 

time to meet this sacredly solemn procession, the soldiers 
seized him, laid the cross upon him, and compelled him 
to turn around and carry it to Golgotha. It was a 
strange experience for Simon thus against his will to be 
brought into such close association with the most tragic 
experience of the Christ, but, apparently, he became a 
Christian, for his two sons were well known as Chris- 
tians when the Gospel of Mark was written. 

During the morning it had been noised through the 
city that Jesus was to be crucified ; both friends and foes 
knew it. Outside the city the way was lined with peo- 
ple, among whom were many friends of Jesus. These, 
especially the women, wept aloud at his impending fate. 
Some of these were from Jerusalem and its suburbs; 
others from Galilee. Turning to these Jesus said : 
"Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep 
for yourselves, and for your children." He foretold 
that days were coming, when they would bless the women 
who had no children, when they would cry to the moun- 
tains : "Fall on us" ; and to the hills, "Cover us." Even 
at that hour he had sympathy for his wayward kinsmen, 
and, seeing clearly the awful woe which their course 
must bring on them (a fate which actually came forty 
years later) he had leisure from himself, even in his 
exhaustion and suffering, thus to address them. 

When they reached Golgotha, they crucified Jesus. 
As nearly as we can find out, the process was as follows : 
First the upright wood was firmly planted in the ground. 
Next the cross-beam was placed on the ground, the vic- 
tim laid upon it, his arms extended and bound to it. 
Then a strong sharp nail was driven first through his 
right hand into the beam, and next through his left. 
Then, by means of ropes or by the use of ladders, the 
sufferer was raised and the cross-beam bound or nailed 



384 Jesus of Nazareth 

to the upright. A rest or support for the body was also 
fastened to it. Lastly, the feet were extended and either 
a nail hammered into each, or a large spike driven 
through them both. One who was crucified might hang 
for hours, and even days in unutterable anguish, until at 
last the unconsciousness of death put an end to the tor- 
ture. It was a form of punishment too* cruel to be in- 
flicted on any being that can feel, either animal or human ; 
and yet it was visited on the most heavenly of all the 
world's inhabitants ! 

To complete the Crucifixion there was placed by order 
of Pilate a placard at the top of the cross, which read 
"The King of the Jews." This placard indicated the 
reason for the crucifixion of the victim. To this title the 
Jewish authorities, so St. John tells us, objected; they 
thought it identified them with Jesus. They tried to get 
Pilate to change it to< "He said, I am the king of the 
Jews," but Pilate refused, and the placard remained un- 
changed. It was the real charge on which the execution 
of Jesus had been secured. 

The Gospel of John tells us that, when Jesus was cru- 
cified, the soldiers divided his clothing among them, but 
that, since his outer garment was without seam and so 
rare and costly, they cast lots for it. This was appar- 
ently the purple robe that Herod Antipas had mockingly 
put upon Christ, and in which he had again been clad 
while the Roman soldiers mocked him in the Prsetorium. 

The Jewish authorities, priests, Pharisees, scribes, 
whom Jesus had denounced in such vigorous language 
in the Temple only two days before, now had their re- 
venge. They could not forbear taunting Jesus in his 
suffering. Even the false witnesses, walking up and 
down in front of the cross wagged their hands and said : 
"Ha! thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in 



The Passion and Resurrection 385 

three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross." 
The priests said: "He saved others, himself he cannot 
save! Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, now come 
down from the cross that we may see and believe." 

At the time Jesus was crucified two robbers had suf- 
fered a like punishment. One of these joined with the 
multitude in reproaching Christ. He sarcastically asked : 
"Art not thou the Messiah? Save thyself and us." 
The other one, however, reproved him. "We," he said, 
"receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath 
done nothing amiss." Perhaps he had heard Christ 
speak at some time during his ministry, and had known 
something of his work. At any rate, in spite of his 
crimes, he now had a sort of blind faith, not only in the 
goodness of Jesus, but in the ultimate triumph of good 
over evil, for turning to Jesus he said, "Remember me, 
when thou comest in thy kingdom." He was a Jew and 
expected a supernatural kingdom to be established in 
which he could share, although he must now die. Jesus 
responded to his faith and comforted him with the 
words : "To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." 

While Jesus was hanging on his cross his mother 
(who had apparently eaten the Passover somewhere with 
her other sons), with Mary Magdalene, Salome, and 
other women from Galilee who were followers of Jesus, 
stood at a distance and kept with aching hearts such 
watch as only patient, loving women know how to keep. 

The Gospel of John relates a touching incident. As 
Jesus hung on the cross Mary and the "disciple whom 
Jesus loved" (Lazarus?) were standing near enough to 
hear his voice, weak though it was, when Jesus said, 
first looking at his mother and then turning his eyes to 
the disciple as he spoke: "Woman, behold thy son." 
Then in the same manner he said to the disciple : "Be- 



386 Jesus of Nazareth 

hold thy mother." The gospel adds that from that hour 
that disciple took her to> his own home. Apparently 
this was only for temporary shelter while Mary re- 
mained in Jerusalem. At least one of her sons, James, 
afterward became a Christian, and was the first great 
leader or, as later called, bishop of the Church at Jeru- 
salem. She can hardly have lived permanently after- 
ward with one not her kinsman. The incident gives us 
evidence of what we should naturally expect, that even 
in his agony on the cross Jesus was filled with love for 
his mother and showed it in tender care for her. 

Jesus had been crucified before twelve o'clock, and, 
although the weather had been fine all night and up till 
that hour, unusually heavy clouds now covered the sky 
and cast a gloom over the surrounding country. The 
darkness was such that it seemed as though nature sym- 
pathized with the Holy Victim and veiled her face at 
his suffering. The effect was so impressive that all the 
Gospels record the fact. For three hours the pall hung 
over the land until Jesus expired, but through its gloom 
the soldiers and the faithful women watched. 

In spite of his pain and exhaustion, Jesus had borne 
himself with cheerful power. The taunts of those who 
mocked him had been unable to move him, and he had 
had leisure from himself to comfort the penitent robber 
and to take loving thought for his mother. So real was 
his humanity, however, that during these hours of gloom 
his feelings ebbed again as they had in Gethsemane, only 
now in a more terrible way. It seemed to him as though 
God had forsaken him — as though all his ideals were to 
end in disaster. His blank despair was such that he 
cried out in the words with which the twenty-second 
Psalm begins : "My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me?" The cry was so piercing — so despairing — 



The Passion and Resurrection 387 

that the very Aramaic words in which it was uttered 
were burned into the memory of those who heard it and 
have been passed on to us. They were "Eloi, eloi, lama 
sabachthcenif" The cry denoted such suffering that even 
one of the soldiers was touched by it and offered Jesus 
a stupefying drink, such as was sometimes given to ren- 
der sufferers somewhat insensible to the agony of their 
tortures, but, after tasting it, Jesus declined to drink it. 
He would bear to the end what he had to bear in full 
possession of all his powers. Some of the Jews who 
were standing near either misunderstood his cry or pre- 
tended to misunderstand it. They said in substance : 
"He calls for Elijah. Let him alone; let us see whether 
Elijah will come to save him." Many at this time be- 
lieved Elijah to be a sort of guardian spirit of all good 
Israelites, and this sarcastic speech was an allusion to 
that. 

The slow hours dragged on. The despairing cry of 
Jesus was not in vain. God sent him a comforting con- 
sciousness of a Father's presence, and sympathy, and 
love. About three o'clock in the afternoon Jesus, using 
as the expression of his deepest feelings words of an- 
other Psalm, said: "Father, into thy hands I commend 
my spirit,''"' 1 and bowing his head. died. 

The commander of the Roman soldiers, an experienced 
Roman centurion, who had doubtless witnessed many 
such scenes, and who had observed Jesus' bearing through 
all his suffering, is said to have exclaimed, when all was 
over, "Truly this man was a son of God!"' 

We are told by the Gospel of John that as the short 
spring day drew to its close, the Jews went to Pilate and 
asked that the legs of the crucified men should be broken, 
that they might be taken down from the cross. The 

1 Psalm 31 : 5. 



388 Jesus of Nazareth 

sufferings of such victims were sometimes cut short by 
striking them in a vital part with a spear, but, in order 
to compensate for the shortening of the tortures of 
crucifixion, it was customary in such cases, before put- 
ting the victims out of their misery, to break their legs 
with clubs. The request of the Jews was really a re- 
quest that the crucified men should be despatched and 
taken down. The book of Deuteronomy forbids that 
the body of a man hanged on a tree {i.e., on wood) 
should be left hanging all night. 1 Pilate accordingly 
gave the order to have the sufferers' lives ended. When 
the soldiers, who were assigned to this service, came to 
Jesus they were surprised to find him already dead, so 
they did not break his legs,, but contented themselves with 
piercing his heart with a spear. Then the bodies were 
taken down. 

Although Jesus had been hurried to his Crucifixion by 
the Sanhedrin, there were at least two members of it 
who had taken no part in the proceedings. They were 
friends of Jesus. They were Nicodemus and Joseph of 
Arimathsea (Arimathsea was, perhaps, Ramah, five miles 
north of Jerusalem). Joseph was rich and had recently 
been having a tomb for himself and family cut out of the 
rock near the place where the Crucifixion took place. 
Such rock-cut tombs (the entrances to some of which 
were closed with great wheel-like stones) were very com- 
mon in ancient Palestine. Although Joseph had been 
unable to save Jesus (the priests had been careful not to 
make him a member of the court that tried Christ) he 
now went to Pilate and begged the body of the Nazarene. 
Pilate readily granted it to him, and, wrapping it in linen 
(there was no time before the Sabbath, which began at 
sundown, for proper burial), he laid it in his new tomb 

iDeut. 21:23. 



The Passion and Resurrection 389 

and rolled the stone across its door. It was not meant 
for a permanent burial, but to give the body temporary 
shelter over the Sabbath. A late tradition, recorded in 
Matthew only, says that the Jews asked Pilate that the 
tomb might be guarded, and that Pilate told them that 
they might set their Temple guards to watch it, which 
they did. 

On the previous evening, when eating his last supper, 
Jesus had taught his Disciples that his death was in some 
way caused by the sins of men and was an expiation 
for sin. To keep that great fact in men's minds, he had 
called into existence the Eucharist, to be throughout the 
ages a symbol of his love and of God's love — a love that 
revealed itself through a sacrifice supremely great. By 
the agonizing death upon the Cross what he had foreseen 
was accomplished, and God's supreme message was 
spoken to the world. 



CHAPTER LXII 

THE RESURRECTION 

(Mark 16: 1-8; I Cor. 15: 3-8; Matt. 28: 1-20; Luke 24: 
1-52; Mark 16:9-20; John 20:1-31.) 

MOST biographies end with the death of their 
hero, but a life of Jesus Christ which stopped 
there would be incomplete, for he rose again. 
No other fact in history is so well attested as his resur- 
rection. On Friday night his Disciples were scattered, 
despondent, hopeless. Through Saturday they avoided 
the authorities. On Sunday, because of Jesus' appear- 
ance to some of them, their hope revived. For some 
days he continued to appear to different disciples. Their 
faith in him was renewed. Their courage to live in 
accordance with his teaching had a new birth. Associa- 
tion with him again filled them with fearlessness, and 
these slightly educated fishermen, in the face of perse- 
cution from their Jewish brethren, founded the Christian 
Church, which exists to the present hour. Not ancient 
documents only, but the Christian Church bridges the 
chasm from the first Easter morning to the present time. 
No fact in history is more certain than these appear- 
ances of Jesus to his disciples after his death and burial. 
While this is so, k the nature of his resurrection is not 
so certain. Many doubtless think that they understand 
it until they begin to study the subject. Was his body 
which was buried in the tomb actually reanimated? 
Were those chemical processes which begin in the tissues 

390 



The Passion and Resurrection 391 

after the spirit has left the body actually reversed in his 
case? Or was it simply the spirit of Jesus which made 
itself manifest to the spirits of his disciples? These are 
questions which we wish that we might answer, but in 
the present state of our knowledge no* convincing answer 
is possible. 

As we study the accounts of the Resurrection in the 
different Gospels and in St. Paul's first Epistle to the 
Corinthians, three facts become clear. The first is that 
in the earliest accounts the appearances of Jesus after 
the Resurrection were spiritual or psychical. The sec- 
ond is that the accounts which were written later en- 
deavor to show that his material body arose. The third 
is that, according to a tradition represented in three of 
our sources, he appeared to his Disciples in Galilee (two 
of them represent him as appearing only in Galilee), 
while three of the sources omit all reference to appear- 
ances in Galilee and imply that his Disciples were in 
Jerusalem when all such appearances occurred. In this 
case also, it is the earliest tradition that tells of the ap- 
pearances in Galilee. 

Such are some of the puzzling facts which face one as 
he seeks to understand these narratives fully. We should 
remember that these first disciples of Jesus were not 
modern scientific students; they were simple peasants — 
honest, devoted men — men who loved Jesus with all 
their hearts, but who lived in a very different intellectual 
world from that in which modern scientific inquiry is 
carried on. In some way they had experiences which 
convinced them that Jesus was not lying dead in the 
Underworld, where, according to the belief of that time, 
all the departed were supposed to await the general res- 
urrection, but that God had raised him up, and that he 
still lived. The certainty of this gave them new hope 



'39 2 Jesus of Nazareth 

and courage. They acted upon it and became changed 
men. In order to convey to others the ground of their 
belief, they told of the experiences on which it rested as 
well as they could, and in time these reports took the 
form of the narratives which we now find in the Gos- 
pels. We cannot wonder that, under the circumstances, 
it is impossible to answer all the questions about the 
Resurrection that a modern student asks. It is not 
strange that some insist that the Resurrection was a spir- 
itual or psychical event, while others are equally certain 
that Christ's physical body was revived. 

In some way, however, even if we do not understand 
how, Jesus convinced the Disciples that he was alive, and 
that he was still a. power in their lives and in the world. 
In the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles we 
find the same men who walked with him in Galilee, and 
yet they are not the same. Association with the risen 
Christ has given them a new poise, a more stable char- 
acter, a more courageous will, a loftier purpose. Many 
since, even to the present hour, have had similar expe- 
riences. Notwithstanding our present inability to under- 
stand all the material or psychical aspects of the Resur- 
rection, we cannot doubt the great fact. 



CHAPTER LXIII 

THE PLACE OF JESUS CHRIST IN HISTORY 

JESUS CHRIST, although he lived the life of a sim- 
ple peasant in an obscure province of the Roman 
empire, is the central figure of the world's history. 
Although his public ministry extended over less than a 
year and a half, he is to-day the most widely and help- 
fully influential of all the persons who have ever lived 
in the world. In concluding this story of his life, it 
seems fitting to think for a moment of causes that have 
made this so. 

Jesus taught his Disciples to look upon him as the Jew- 
ish Messiah. True, he tried hard to impress upon them 
that the ordinary ideas of the Messiah's work were 
wrong; nevertheless, he used the term Messiah to de- 
scribe himself. When, after his death, his appearances 
to his disciples convinced them that God had raised him 
from the dead, they believed him to be indeed the heav- 
enly Messiah, who had been described in one of their 
religious books x as having existed with God in heaven 
from before the foundation of the world. They nat- 
urally associated him, therefore, with God. His won- 
derful life, his matchless teaching, and his holy character 
all seemed to them to harmonize with that. They soon 
came to think of him as an incarnation of God. "God 
was in Christ," St. Paul says. The experience of mil- 
lions of Christians through the centuries has confirmed 

1 The Book of Enoch, chapters 46 and 48. 

393 



394 Jesus of Nazareth 

this belief : hence the place of Jesus Christ in the history 
of the world. 

In consequence of the conditions which prevailed in 
the world until about a hundred years ago, travel was 
slow and difficult, and peoples of different races and re- 
ligions knew little of one another. Almost no one ap- 
proached the study of any subject with a desire first to 
see the facts and then to look for their real causes. Every 
one came with his traditional prejudices and explana- 
tions. It must be confessed that Christians, like the 
devotees of other religions, were provincial. They did 
not look at the world broadly. Instead of seeing in 
such great religious teachers as the Buddha and Con- 
fucius real prophets of God, they regarded them as de- 
ceivers under the influence of the Devil. 

Now that steam and electricity have made the world one 
neighborhood, and the scientific and sympathetic study 
of religions has made us acquainted with the great non- 
Christian religious leaders, there are those, even in Chris- 
tian countries, who have in their thought, rushed to the 
other extreme. Jesus was, they say, a great religious 
leader. He is worthy of being classed with Confucius, 
the Buddha, Zoroaster, and Mohammed, but is no greater 
than they. Not the incarnation of God, but one among 
the human prophets — such is their estimate of Jesus. 
Many readers of this book will probably hear, if 
they have not already heard, such sentiments expressed. 

The writer has studied with sympathy, pleasure, and 
profit the works of the four religious leaders just men- 
tioned and of many others, but he cannot be blind to the 
fact that there was a power in Jesus Christ which was 
not in them. But two or three evidences of this power 
can be mentioned here. 

(i) There is a striking difference between Jesus 



The Passion and Resurrection 395 

and the founders of other religions in the length of time 
employed in impressing their teachings upon their dis- 
ciples. Zoroaster taught for forty-seven years. He 
had small success until a king named Vishtaspa became 
his patron. This king helped him during the last thirty- 
five years of his ministry. Buddha taught for more 
than thirty years and had a king for his patron. Con- 
fucius spent about fifty years as a teacher and had a 
number of princes as pupils and patrons. Mohammed's 
ministry lasted for twenty years and he met with small 
success until he became a leader of armies and offered 
those whom he approached the choice of conversion or 
death. In contrast with these, think of Jesus, who 
preached for less than eighteen months, had no royal 
patron, and died with criminals on a Roman cross ! 
Great as the others were, there must have been a power 
in him that was not in them. 

(2) Jesus possessed a power of ethical and re- 
ligious insight that these others did not possess. Buddha 
and Confucius saw ethical reality with remarkable clear- 
ness. They are among the greatest ethical geniuses of 
the world. In some points their teachings are like those 
of Jesus. But one has only to pass from their teaching 
to his to see how wonderfully he surpassed them. In 
religious insight they fall far below him. He speaks of 
God and duty as no other has ever spoken. Men, as they 
listen, discover that he touches chords which vibrate to 
no other touch. Just as an accomplished scientist knows 
unerringly who is the greatest master of his science, so 
the truly religious man, who tests religious theories in 
the laboratory of life, unerringly pronounces Jesus 
Christ the supreme authority in this sphere. He had an 
insight, a power, a genius, a nature — call it what you will 
— that distinguishes him from all others. 



396 Jesus of Nazareth 

Jesus was well acquainted with the expectation of a 
supernatural Messiah held by his fellow countrymen, and 
he knew himself to be that Messiah. He found his own 
nature to be such that it in some true sense corresponded 
with that expectation, although far more spiritual and 
sublime. He who knew God and man and truth so 
much more clearly than others, could not be mistaken 
with reference to himself. The perfection of his life 
and his holy, healing influence on the world, prove that 
he was not mistaken. As St. Paul said, in him "we all 
with unveiled face behold as in a mirror the glory of the 
Lord." 

Sometimes in the summer we go to the seashore and 
sit by some bay to admire its beauty. We do not look 
at the whole ocean, but in the bay we get an idea of 
what the ocean is. Far, far beyond the range of our 
vision the ocean rolls. We cannot sound its depths, but 
we know that wherever its waters are they have the same 
quality of saltness which we find in the bay, that how- 
ever much the waves outside may be greater, they are of 
the same general shape as those of the bay, that the 
ocean, like the bay, reflects the gray and blue of cloud 
or sky, and that its waves glint in the sun like those upon 
which we have looked in the bay. Something like this 
is the relation of Jesus to God. In him the nature of 
God has come into our human life that we may under- 
stand a little what that nature is like. We do not see all 
of God, but we see enough to convince us that God is 
like that, and we bow our heads and worship. 

He surpasses all our attempted definitions of him, but 
all who see him as he was can say with the author of 
the Gospel of John that the "Word," or self -revealing 
power of God, in him "became flesh and tabernacled 
among us." 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

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